


the super secret boyband

by Ann1215



Series: 'Haikyuu meets MCU' verse [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Action, Alternate Universe - Marvel Cinematic Universe Fusion, And Daichi is Cap, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Kozume Kenma & Kuroo Tetsurou Friendship, Kuroo Tetsurou is a Good Friend, Kuroo Tetsurou is a Little Shit, Kuroo Tetsurou is a Mess, Kuroo and Saeko are bros, Kuroo is Iron Man, Long-Suffering Sawamura Daichi, M/M, Michimiya Yui as Kuroo Tetsurou's Godmother, POV Alternating, Pre-Slash, Set in Avengers (2012), Slow Burn, honestly more action than I thought I'd ever be doing, minor character injury, you'll figure out the rest hopefully
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:14:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 37,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24400393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ann1215/pseuds/Ann1215
Summary: Tetsurou watches Agent Shimizu as she turns to leave. "I thought Ukai said the Avengers initiative was a bust."That gets her to pause, before she looks up, meeting his eyes carefully.“With all due respect, Kuroo-san, Director Ukai-san is well aware of Agent Tanaka’s soft spot for you. The fact that he’s still allowing you the choice to join the mission is a testament to how grave the current situation is.”Or, in which Tetsurou is Iron Man, and the Captain has just been newly unfrozen on this side of the century. Oh, and aliens are a thing, because why not?
Relationships: Kuroo Tetsurou/Sawamura Daichi
Series: 'Haikyuu meets MCU' verse [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1811434
Comments: 63
Kudos: 64





	1. babysitting duties

**Author's Note:**

> this started out as a writing exercise but my brain would NOT let go of the image of Kuroo and Daichi as Iron Man and Cap so come and hang out in this playground with me

Tetsurou’s pretty adept at picking which emotion is the most unsuitable to portray at any given circumstance, but coming face to face with the dead man your father had idolised for his entire childhood  _ would _ be the thing that finally throws him off his metaphorical feet.

Thankfully, his physical feet stay intact as he thrusts his hand forward, smirk never slipping. “Captain. You don’t seem to have aged a day since anyone last saw you. Mind sharing with us the secret to the fountain of youth?”

Okay,  _ maybe _ he’s still got it in him to be as inappropriate as possible.

He can hear Saeko’s sigh from behind him, as well as Ukai-san’s low grumble of “Kuroo-san.  _ Behave _ .” Considering it was both of them that thought it would be a good idea to let Tetsurou meet a newly unfrozen actual national icon, Tetsurou isn’t too fussed about not being too much of himself in front of this man.

Captain Sawamura Daichi watches him carefully, but he takes Tetsurou’s hand, his grip almost firm enough to hurt. Tetsurou wonders if that’s a thing he’s had to learn since the serum—if a little thing like a handshake would be enough to crush someone’s bones. “Coldest water you could think of, and then some,” Sawamura replies, looking like he hadn’t intended to say that, judging from the widening of his brown eyes.

Tetsurou raises his brows, but he doesn’t bother tamping down his grin.

Maybe babysitting Captain Sawamura won’t be so boring after all.

  
  


***

  
  


SHIELD gives Sawamura Daichi an apartment in the Shinjuku ward, six stops by subway from its headquarters, even though Tetsurou had needled Saeko endlessly about letting him rent out a place in Ginza, closer to his tower.

Saeko had only cackled at him as she cleaned her knives in his workshop, perched on a table while he worked on her Widow stingers. If he could convince the mass public that one of SHIELD’s top assassins had a penchant for messing with his car engines and stealing his protein shakes, grease in her blonde hair and wearing one of his tank tops, maybe they’d stop bitching about  _ his _ penchant for drinking. “It’d be good for you to learn how to use the subway for once, honey.”

Tetsurou glares at her from over one of his holographic screens. “You’re saying that like you don’t believe I know how to work the subway.”

Saeko smiles at him, the blade in her hands glinting in the soft blue light of the room. “When’s your first playdate with the Captain?”

“Babysitting session,” he retorts, and swipes away at the screen before heading over to the table she’s sat on, blindly feeling around for one of the tiny screwdrivers before starting on the stingers, schematics playing in the back of his mind. “Tomorrow? It’s probably tomorrow if my internal clock is right, which it is 35% of the time. Please don’t get dried blood all over my workstation, Tanaka.”

In response, Saeko begins to juggle two newly cleaned knives, twirling them with her slim fingers. “Do you know the first thing he Googled after meeting you?”

“Doesn’t really take a genius to guess that one, agent. Also, isn’t that a breach of privacy?”

Saeko hums, and when Tetsurou glances at her, she’s got three knives balanced upon one another on one open palm. “He took out the bugs in his apartment half an hour after we let him settle in. I’m guessing he knows we’re probably monitoring his Internet activities, but he hasn’t gotten the hacking seminars from SHIELD yet.”

“You didn’t put the bugs back in?” Tetsurou asks, scoffing, because it’s  _ SHIELD _ .

“They gave up after the third time when they found a box filled with the stuff, fried to hell on the Captain's doorstep,” Saeko shrugs, and Tetsurou gapes, because—

Japan’s paragon of noble virtue, intentionally messing up high-tech government equipment like a little shit?

It didn’t fit the picture of the man that consumed Tetsurou’s father’s waking thoughts for most of his life; he remembered hearing stories about a quiet, calm man with a bleeding heart of steel made of national pride, and when Aunt Yui talked about the Captain, it was always with a wistful smile about his bravery, and the sacrifices he’d made for his country.

None of that matched with the guy Tetsurou had talked to for all of ten minutes two days ago before he was whisked away by Director Ukai-san and Agent Takeda, Saeko left behind to ensure Tetsurou didn’t hack into SHIELD’s mainframe systems to gather more intelligence on the discovery of the Captain’s body. Instead, she’d filled him in on the basics: a group of Korean and Swedish scientists had been conducting some research in the vicinity two months ago when their systems picked up a giant hunk of metal, and when they pulled the wreck up they’d discovered Captain Sawamura Daichi’s remains.

Or at least, they  _ thought _ he was dead.

“Well,” Tetsurou says after a moment. “At least he seems to be amusing himself just fine. Ukai didn’t have to drag me into babysitting duty if that was the case.”

He hears Saeko shifting to face him fully, but he keeps his gaze on the small, deadly weapons in his hands. “He spends his days either taking walks around the neighbourhood, or down at the HQ’s gym. We only spoke a couple of times, but he seemed like he wanted to be left alone. Pretty much everyone he knows is dead or geriatric. We asked if he wanted to meet Former Director Michimiya, but…”

Tetsurou swallows. He can’t imagine going to bed and waking up to see Kenma old and having lived a full life without him, so he doesn’t blame Sawamura for shying away from that, but.

He’s due for a visit with Aunt Yui, anyway. Maybe.

“And, well. He knew your father.”

_ That _ causes his hackles to rise. “Oh great, I thought we’d actually gotten over the idea that I’m merely my father’s replacement,” Tetsurou smiles sharply, his tone iron-wrapped and barbed to hell, but Saeko only rolls her eyes at him, unperturbed.

They’ve come a long way from two years ago, when all Saeko did was watch him with wariness, silently handing him the shots designed to keep his heart from collapsing due to shrapnel and poison every 48 hours.

“The Captain just needs to acclimatise himself to this side of the century,” she continues calmly, knives now replaced by one of her guns, pulled apart on the table before her. “Considering you’re one of the most well-known global figures in the past three decades, it shouldn’t be too difficult for you to bring him up to speed.”

“SHIELD can’t just make us hang out and expect us to be friends,” Tetsurou replies with a frown, pointing his screwdriver at her. “You said he’s Googled me, God only knows what he thinks of me now.”

And Saeko smirks, the clack of a gun being put together efficiently cracking the air.

“Worked for you and me, though.”

  
  


***

  
  


Daichi doesn’t exactly know what to think of Hirai-san’s son.

Sure, he recognises the trademark Kuroo smirk, so similar to a man he’d last seen four months ago, before… Before Suga and Michimiya and—

And evidently, genius also seemed to run in the Kuroo genetics, because the file they’d given to Daichi shortly after he’d woken up and found himself in a completely different world didn’t even  _ begin _ to explain the anomaly that Kuroo Tetsurou must be. Built an empire on the foundation of his father’s military weapons company when he was only 18 and fresh out of college, got kidnapped ten years later in Afghanistan during a weapons demo trip before subsequently escaping after three months of captivity only to shut down the incredibly profitable weapons division of his company, invented a whole new element, and oh, built himself  _ a literal suit of armour _ like an actual superhero.

And that doesn’t even cover the numerous patents he’s got in myriad fields of science and tech, or his very public drinking and sexual lifestyle.

The file SHIELD had given him included Kuroo’s birthday, where he’d gone to school, significant achievements as well as his personality traits:  _ textbook narcissism, prone to derision, guarded _ .

(Within two minutes of their first meeting Kuroo had already made him drop his defences, sass coming through without his permission when they’d exchanged introductions, and Daichi doesn’t think the man in the file would have succeeded in even getting Daichi to talk beyond a couple of words.

He’s not sure who’d come up with Kuroo’s personality traits, but he can’t help but feel it was done by someone who absolutely had no idea who the man is, or… A dissuading tactic?)

All in all, he doesn’t know what SHIELD is hoping to accomplish by making Kuroo Tetsurou spend time with him for the better part of an afternoon, but at least he’ll be able to agonise over it in his finally bug-free apartment later.

The man’s not making it easy for Daichi to like him though, considering he’s already twenty minutes late to the lunch meeting they’d agreed upon at the Kuroo tower itself.

Daichi fiddles with the phone in his hand, too aware of its flimsiness—he thinks of the bulky thing on the mantel of Suga’s living room back when they were teenagers, fascinated with the idea of being able to talk to somebody miles away without actually being there. He thinks Suga would have gotten the hang of the 21st century faster than he has, considering how constantly fascinated his best friend was with science and technological marvels, memories of the last Kuroo Expo they’d gone to together before the army flitting in his mind.

He thinks Suga would have already whined about Kuroo Tetsurou’s tardiness if he were here, and thinking about Suga hurts still in a world that looks at him like he was a ghost and a hero and a relic all at once, so he tries his best to stop right there.

Daichi nearly drops his phone when the chair across him is suddenly pulled back, before being occupied by a lanky figure with fairly obvious bedhead and a sheepish smile, dressed in a band t-shirt and jeans.

“Sorry, Captain, my CEO needed to bite my ear off about a minor explosion a couple of hours ago and I’ve just escaped his wrath,” Kuroo greets him, running a hand through his hair and somehow making it look even messier. “Ordered anything yet? Steak’s pretty good here, unless you’re vegan now. Pescatarian?”

_ What? _ “No, I. I thought I’d wait for you, first,” he replies haltingly. “Explosion? Is—are things okay? Are you sure you should be here with me?”

That causes Kuroo to stare at him, and Daichi feels the air around them cools a little, despite it being just after one in the afternoon and it’s early summer.

“Everything’s fine, we need to replace a few of the polymer walls but the scorch marks add character, so I’m probably gonna keep that,” Kuroo answers flippantly after a moment, just as the waitress that had served him his water earlier comes by again. “Ah, Jirou-san, my usual, please?”

“Sure, Kuroo-san. And you, sir?”

Daichi blinks, and looks down at the menu he’d skimmed through earlier, having given up on it when he couldn’t find anything remotely familiar. “Um.”

“He’ll have the same, except without the gin and tonic,” Kuroo answers for him, and their menus are whisked away as she leaves. “I ordered the steak for us both, but if you’d rather get something else…”

“Steak’s fine,” Daichi says, even though he doesn’t think he’s had it more than a couple of times in his entire life, and both times were definitely with Hirai-san.

Kuroo smiles, and it’s different from Hirai-san’s smirk when the man had looked at Daichi with smug pride, like Daichi was one of his amazing inventions.

The quirk of Kuroo’s lips is softer, for one. More hesitant.

It’s odd how much that tentativeness actually grounds Daichi.

“So, what have you been up to, Captain? Explored the city much?” Kuroo asks, sending a quick smile at the waitress when she brings him his drink. “At least SHIELD’s given you a phone, even though it’s an Apple product,” he adds, wrinkling his nose, and Daichi glances down at it.

“It’s better than the old crackling comms we had in the army back then,” Daichi shrugs, Michimiya’s face still so clear in his mind when she presented him with his gear after the first time he really put his newfound abilities to use. “And, um. Not really? Took me a while to get used to…”  _ The constant noise, the way people pressed into each other like personal space was a high-priced commodity, and how he’d moved around like he was invisible, everyone’s heads unmoving from the screens in their hands. _ “... To the subway,” he finishes lamely.

It brings an odd grin to Kuroo’s features, but it disappears almost as soon as it had appeared in the first place. “Fortunately, we won’t be using that today,” he replies, before shifting in his seat. “Actually, how hungry are you?”

  
  


***

  
  


Tetsurou drops the Captain at his apartment after three hours of walking along the streets of Ameya Yokocho. He’d been torn between showing the other man Akihabara or taking a tour at the National Museum downtown, but he doesn’t know if Sawamura would react well to seeing how much time has changed since he’d been gone, or how some of the worst things have stayed the same, despite how much he must have fought for peace and unity in his time.

He’d also given the man a KurooPhone, because  _ seriously _ , SHIELD?

Sawamura had tried to refuse, and then he’d tried to pay for it, but Tetsurou only said, “I’ll bill SHIELD if that makes you feel better,” and Daichi had gotten a pinched look on his face like Tetsurou had stepped all over him, but he’d nodded anyway before thanking him again.

(Tetsurou’s  _ not _ going to bill SHIELD for it, because that would mean informing the organisation that Sawamura had a non-SHIELD authorised phone. He’ll leave it to the Captain to decide if that was a wise decision or not.)

“And I’m obviously not going to spy on you—you can choose to believe me or not, that’s up to you—but I took the liberty of putting my number in, um, in case you needed to, uh. Figure out some more 21st century shit. Or if you’re looking for the best ramen stand on this side of the city.”

Tetsurou internally winced at himself. He gives speeches every other month, he’s supposed to be better at telling someone what to do with his goddamn phone number. But somehow, that had eased the weird uptight look on Sawamura’s face, and his smile looked a little more genuine when he bid Tetsurou goodbye before walking out of the car.

As Kai brings him back to the tower, he thinks about the conversation they’d shared while walking together, elbows bumping against each other as they ate their snacks, because it’s a Friday afternoon and everyone seems to be taking advantage of the warm sunshine and the beginning of the weekend.

“You know that SHIELD’s monitoring your Internet activities, right, Sawamura?” he threw out on a whim, taking a bite of his honeydew on a stick.

Sawamura had shrugged. “I think the most incriminating activity they’d find on my ‘search history’,” he says, pausing, and Tetsurou can hear the quote marks around the last two words, “Is the comment I made on a video that got my height wrong, both pre-serum and post-serum. Apparently you’re not supposed to correct a world-renown Japanese historian specialising in the Siege Battles on the Internet. Even if you were involved in said events.”

Tetsurou had nearly choked on fruit from the unexpected reply, and when he managed to look up again without trying to hack out the honeydew, the Captain had merely smiled innocently at Tetsurou, biting into his own strawberry-ladened stick.

It’s what had ultimately made him send Kai for a package of the latest KurooPhone to gift the Captain, because he knows Sawamura must have felt limited by the thought of SHIELD looking at his every move, judging from what he’d done to the bugs in his apartment. And he doesn’t think Sawamura trusts him yet, but.

He had enjoyed himself. And there were moments when Sawamura had shut down for a couple of minutes, or when Tetsurou is reminded yet again that the other man was the measure he’d constantly failed to achieve all of his life until his father had died—

But it’s difficult to think of the Captain as a living national hero when he’s shorter than Tetsurou by a few inches, dressed in plaid and jeans, appetite absolutely unceasing despite how much they’d eaten throughout the afternoon.

Tetsurou’s musings are interrupted by his ringing phone, and he glances down to see Saeko’s name on the screen. He swipes to answer it immediately.

“Aren’t you on some sort of top-secret mission right now?”

There’s a tell-tale sound of muffled explosions in the background. “Eh, I’m wrapping things up, figured you were probably done with your playdate too so I wanted to check up on you.”

“Babysitting,” Tetsurou replies with a huff, as Saeko snickers, barely even out of breath as screams resound in the distance. “I’m not talking to you about it while you’re murdering neo-Nazis or whatever you’re currently doing right now.”

“Spoilsport,” she retorts, and then after a couple of quiet seconds, during which Tetsurou tries his best not to hyperventilate as he waits for her to speak again, “Drinks tomorrow night?”

He grins, gritting his teeth to hold back his sigh of relief. “I’m drinking your fill if you’re late,” he says, and he hears one gunshot and a mad cackle before the line goes dead.

He still stands by what he’d said to her, because Tetsurou’s got plenty of friends. Kenma, Yaku and Kai had been there for him for nearly every single traumatic event in his life, and Saeko had slipped in during one of said events, with the palladium poisoning and the Hammer incident, so if he and Sawamura only remained acquaintances despite SHIELD’s meddling, then that’s fine.

His phone chimes again, but instead of the text he’d expected from Saeko, it’s an unknown number.

_ Kuroo-san. _

_ Thanks again for today. It was surprisingly enjoyable. Please let me treat you to lunch some time in return for indulging my appetite. _

_ 5.39PM _

Tetsurou blinks.

_ No prob, Cap _

_ I’ve never seen anyone put away that many sweets in ten minutes _

_ So the pleasure’s all mine ;) _

_ I’ll let you know about lunch soon _

_ 5.40PM _

It’s absolutely  _ fine _ .


	2. unprepared

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daichi grits his teeth as the scepter gets pushed onto the top of his scalp with strength he now knows for sure is inhuman. “Kneel,” the Asgardian hisses, his breathing heavy.
> 
> Not in any lifetime, not to you. “Not today,” Daichi replies flippantly, and swings out from underneath the scepter to deliver a spinning kick right into the other man’s snarling face.
> 
> Distantly, he hears Tanaka muttering, “He’s all over the place, can’t get a clear shot,” through his comms, but then his attention is arrested by being propelled through the air again, and god dammit, this is really getting old.
> 
> “Widow, Cap! Missed me?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *asgardians have entered the chat*

Four months after Daichi wakes up in 2012, Director Ukai calls him into his office one morning and presents him with a thin file.

“You’ve had some time to get used to things, Captain, but the world still needs saving. Up for the job?”

And Daichi swallows, nodding grimly as he accepts the file.

Because if three years of being Captain hadn’t given him enough time to get used to the title, the responsibilities, the violence and deaths, then he’s pretty sure four months of being in a completely foreign world isn’t going to change a thing about the way he feels about bearing the name.

“What do you have for me, sir?”

It turns out a highly dangerous weapon had been stolen from a secluded SHIELD facility in Hiroshima, and Daichi is tasked to capture the thief, a mad man named Daishou Suguru (the file says  _ alien  _ from a planet called Asgard, but he’s not—he doesn’t have time to think about  _ extraterrestrial beings _ right now), who’s supposedly fled to Russia with a number of compromised SHIELD staff.

The director tells him that he’s partnered with Agent Tanaka Saeko, codenamed ‘Black Widow’, whom he’d met a few times in the gym at SHIELD headquarters, and when he was introduced to Kuroo. She was the one who’d stayed behind while Ukai apologized for the man’s behaviour, which Daichi had waved away. He also remembers Kuroo mentioning her sometimes during their meetings, usually about how she’d go through his liquor stash without his permission.

He hadn’t looked that put out though whenever he talked about her, grinning ruefully at Daichi, sauce smeared on his upper lip or grease still staining his fingers as he spoke about her over their brunch or tea or 2am supper meetings.

(Daichi doesn’t think about the possibility of Tanaka and Kuroo talking about him, but it’s a near thing.)

But Kuroo is currently in Germany now, and as such, he can’t exactly bother the man and ask if Tanaka’s more likely to drag him into a bar fight or into his death straight out of his first mission.

When Daichi meets Tanaka, she offers him a tight smile and a “Looking forward to working with you, Captain,” different from the easy grins he’d glimpsed from her. His mind throws at him the meagre details of the file Ukai had given him, and sucks in a breath. One of the staff members that had been compromised was named Tanaka as well.

“My brother,” she said to his unasked question, when he looks at her for a second too long.

They leave as soon as they’re geared up, and Daichi’s brow is furrowed when he realises the gear fits him well, the smooth metallic shield Hirai-san had made strapped to his back once more after months in his time, and decades in everyone else’s. He’d taken one look at the uniform he’d worn in the 60s that they’d offered to outfit him in and gave them a firm  _ no, _ choosing the darker gear that Black Widow and the rest of the SHIELD agents usually wore.

(It reminded him of too many months spent in waste on stage after stage, and then of Suga’s fall, fingers too far away to grasp each other’s, and his subsequent one into the Arctic.)

Daichi also doesn’t know when SHIELD had taken the time to take his measurements, but right now he’s too preoccupied with trying not to hyperventilate as soon as he steps into the jet that will bring him and Tanaka to the city of Vladivostok.

“This is the fastest way to get there, I’m afraid,” Tanaka says as she settles into the pilot seat, looking at him from the corner of her eyes.

Daichi shakes his head, keeping his eyes fixed on the clear afternoon skies, so different from the cloudy sunset he’d been surrounded with the last time he stepped foot into a jet. “I’m good,” he replies shortly, placing down his shield behind the other seat. “ETA to the concert hall?”

“Six hours. I suggest getting some rest if you can, Cap,” she says, but huffs a quiet laugh as Daichi straps himself in the seat beside her, the file on Daishou Suguru in his hand. “Or you could do that, I guess.”

“Any leads on those compromised?”

That causes a somber look to appear on her features, but Daichi only watches as Tanaka straightens her back slightly. “Reports said that Dr. Sakusa and Hawkeye were with Daishou when he escaped from the facility. It was understood that they’d… Aided him. Apparently they were under some sort of mind control, because Ry—” she pauses. “Anyway. They might be with him, but our main priority is capturing Daishou. Alive.”

Daichi nods, looking down at the file. Daishou’s face stares back at him, slanted eyes narrowed even as he sneers, dressed in some sort of elaborate robe and armour combination, the shadow of something thin and long in his hand, hidden away from the camera. “And the weapon?” He doesn’t remember Ukai telling him what it looks like, and he wonders how he’s supposed to capture Daishou and detain him if he doesn’t even know what the weapon is.

Tanaka takes a little longer to answer this time, and when Daichi turns to look at her, she’s resolutely keeping her gaze ahead.

“Agent?”

Her lips quirk up. “Classified. You’ll have to take it with Director Ukai after the mission if you want to know more.”

He swallows down the sudden trepidation that runs down his spine, and nods, filing the thought away, even as his gut screams at him. The rest of the flight is spent in silence, with a few murmurs from Tanaka updating her handler back at headquarters, and confirming their plan of attack when they confront Daishou. Daichi closes his eyes when the sun begins to set, and he thinks Tanaka does something to the aircraft’s windshield to turn them darker, but he says nothing.

“Five minutes to arrival,” she pipes up over an hour later, and Daichi unstraps himself, getting ready to confront this unknown man and his ability to apparently control minds. “There’s a commotion happening right in front of the concert hall, so it’s safe to assume Daishou’s probably revealed himself to the public.”

Which means the possibility for casualties has risen, and Daichi double checks his gear, adrenaline already rushing through his body, causing his vision to sharpen as he strides towards the back of the plane. “I’ll engage, but if I go down you might need to knock him out somehow,” Daichi says firmly, getting ready to jump out.

“I wouldn’t count you out just yet, Cap,” Tanaka answers, light and cheery, and for a split second it reminds him too much of Suga, and he has to swallow down the sheer magnitude of longing that washes over him.

“We’ll see,” he replies with a shrug, and crouches down in preparation to jump. “Ready when you are, Widow.”

“30 seconds,” Tanaka announces after a few long moments, and Daichi takes one, two deep breaths, as the doors open, cold wind whipping his face.

He catches sight of the silent crowd before the hall, kneeling before someone dressed in green and black, an ostentatious gold ornament adorning his head as he speaks to the people in front of him. Just as he mentally counts down to ten, a person stands up in the direct line of sight of Daishou.

“Look to your elder, people,” he hears, and bile rises in his throat, even as he switches the shield to his front. “Let him be an example.”

Daichi jumps off as soon as Daishou raises his scepter, landing on the ground just in time to bounce the light with his shield right back towards the mad alien. Daishou drops down, and Daichi gets back up to his feet, striding over towards him with none of the confidence he injects into his voice.

“You know, the last time I was in Russia, I saw a man standing above everybody else,” he says, aware of the heads beginning to peek up to look at him, “And we ended up disagreeing.”

Daishou frowns, before a maniacal grin takes over his features, and Daichi nearly stops in his footsteps when Daishou’s eyes literally morph into slits, similar to the eyes of a snake, black and venomous in its clear hatred. “The Soldier,” he sneers. “Man out a’ time.”

Daichi shrugs, tightening the grip on his shield. “I’m not the one who’s out of time.”

Above him, he hears the whirring of the jet, and watches with dread as Daishou takes stock of the scene, and the inevitable confrontation.

“Daishou Suguru,” Tanaka says over the PA system, “Drop the weapon and stand down.”

Daichi just has enough time to catch the smile on his face before Daishou directs a blast at the jet, and immediately throws the shield at the other man as the horde around them descends into mad chaos. He gets close enough to throw a punch, but Daishou barely flinches and he thinks,  _ right, alien _ , just as he actually gets thrown through the air, something hard and solid breaking his fall and knocking the wind out of him.

The shield is even less effective than his punch as Daishou swats it aside, but it gives Daichi the momentum to get in close. Unfortunately, he gets caught up avoiding the scepter from cutting him in half before he’s thrown forward this time, grunting as he hits the ground for the second time in three minutes.

He grits his teeth as the scepter gets pushed onto the top of his scalp with strength he now knows for sure is inhuman. “Kneel,” Daishou hisses, his breathing heavy.

_ Not in any lifetime, not to you. _ “Not today,” Daichi replies flippantly, and swings out from underneath the scepter to deliver a spinning kick right into Daishou’s snarling face.

Distantly, he hears Tanaka muttering, “He’s all over the place, can’t get a clear shot,” through his comms, but then his attention is arrested by being propelled through the air  _ again _ , and god dammit, this is really getting old.

_ “Widow, Cap! Missed me?” _

Loud bubblegum pop music instantly blares all around, and Daichi jerks up in shock to see a red and gold suit of armour fly in from around the corner, delivering two powerful blasts that successfully fling Daishou backwards, causing him to collide against the steps of the building with a loud groan and knocking the scepter out of his hands.

And then Iron Man lands ten feet away from him in a pose that screams  _ superhero _ , one knee against the ground, a fist causing a dent in the ground along with his legs, the other arm pushed out in Daishou’s direction.

Daichi goes to stand right beside Iron Man as he gets to his feet, putting the shield up as the other man points numerous weapons at Daishou.

“Make your move, asshole,” Iron Man taunts, and Daichi has to suppress a sudden urge to snort.

Daishou takes one long look at them, before the ornament on his head as well as the rest of his armour disappears, hands up in surrender.

“Good move,” Iron Man says with obvious delight, and puts down his arms.

Daichi shifts, carefully lowering his shield as well before glancing beside him. “Kuroo-san.”

He swears Kuroo is laughing at him when he feels a metal hand on his shoulder, heavy with things left unsaid between them, such as what Kuroo was doing on this mission, when he should be messing with KI’s German shareholders right now, and why Daichi has to battle the desire to shake his head in exasperation at Kuroo’s antics. “Hey, Captain.” 

  
  


***

  
  


He didn’t technically lie to Sawamura.

Tetsurou  _ did _ have a business trip to Germany, it just… Finished up earlier than anyone expected. And by that he means he’d left the terrible party that had twelve German shareholders, two of his board of directors and a whole lot of booze as soon as JARVIS informed him that Captain and Saeko were crossing into European borders. They were ostensibly on the mission Agent Shimizu had given him a bare-minimum file on and left him to decide if he felt like joining when she crashed his evening with Kenma fifty hours ago.

“Who’s taking down the crazy Asgardian?” he’d asked as soon as he’d finished skimming the report. SHIELD had only mentioned they were sending their agents, but Ukai’s the sort to boldly play his hand with no hesitation, and the world is still in the dark regarding the existence of the legendary Captain Sawamura.

Agent Shimizu stared at him over her glasses. “Your role is only to find the weapon, Kuroo-san,” she replied, pretty face blank and assessing.

Tetsurou takes a glance at Kenma, who was sitting curled up on the couch, watching both of them silently. His friend had made his grievances about Iron Man pretty clear in between the time he’d almost died from Uncle Obi—from  _ Sakuma Obito _ , and the palladium thing, but he’d like to think they’ve come a long way since the events from a couple of years ago.

Still, Kenma only stays quiet as Tetsurou turns to the SHIELD agent, arms crossed and regretting the fact that he didn’t bother changing out of his flight suit after activating the arc reactor tech for the tower earlier. He feels a lot less authoritative in the skintight outfit compared to a loose shirt and pants, hiding away the light of the arc reactor. “That doesn’t answer my question, though.”

Shimizu’s expression doesn’t change, and Tetsurou sighs.

“You know I’ll probably find out in less than an hour from now anyway,” he adds, and that causes her to shrug, the casual movement oddly graceful, as if she’d somehow perfected the art as opposed to making it look natural. Tetsurou still stands by the idea that she’s part cyborg, never mind that he might actually qualify for that definition as well.

“Be my guest,” she answers, and then directs a smile at Kenma. “Sorry to intrude on your evening as well, Kozume-san.”

Kenma tilts his head in acceptance. “It’s fine, the evening was only 12% mine anyway,” he answers lightly, and Tetsurou snorts. “If that’s all, could you excuse us for a minute, though? I’ll walk with you in a bit, I’m going to need a ride to Haneda Airport if you could drop me off.”

Shimizu nods, and turns to walk towards the lift, but Tetsurou’s struck by another thought, one that reminds him of Ukai and Saeko in a hole-in-the-wall  _ izakaya _ past midnight, Ukai’s face wrought with frustration and Saeko watching him with a small smile, concern lined all over her features.

“I thought Ukai said the Avengers initiative was a bust. Saeko put me on consultation instead because she thought I needed more practice, and you needed my tech more than Iron Man,”  _ and _ because she was an unapologetic worrywart who had benched him from active missions for nearly two years now.

If Iron Man was found making trips to rural parts of Asia from time to time, Saeko never mentioned them; she’d just drag him down to his own gym that Yaku had made him build and beat his ass in the name of “training, Tetsu, your form is atrocious”.

That gets Shimizu to pause in her tracks, before she looks up to meet his eyes.

“With all due respect, Kuroo-san, Director Ukai-san is well aware of Agent Tanaka’s soft spot for you. The fact that he’s still allowing you the choice to join the mission is a testament to how grave the current situation is.”

Not for the first time, Tetsurou is struck dumb by her words, and he’s left gaping as she bows her head. “I’ll see you in the lobby then, Kozume-san.  _ Ojama shimashita _ ,” and Tetsurou barely gets out an, “Uh,  _ itterasshai _ ,” before the lift doors close.

“Kuro.”

He turns around to see Kenma already standing, blankets no longer wrapped around his slight figure, clad in a hoodie and sweatpants. Tetsurou doesn’t get a chance to see Kenma dressed down much these days—between being KI’s CEO full-time and helping Tetsurou with the business side of his arc reactor tech and clean energy proposals to the government, Kenma hasn’t had time to wind down and just be Tetsurou’s childhood friend, kicking his ass at any number of video games they’d planned for the night.

It pulls at Tetsurou to see that resigned expression on Kenma’s face. “You know I could just say no, right? I mean, I don’t think Shimizu would outright kill me, Saeko likes me too much for that to happen. There might be some maiming, but that’s fine, I’ve gotten better at first aid shit,” Tetsurou rambles, his grin forced and the report on his hands a palpable weight on both of them.

“You need to do your homework, Kuro,” Kenma interrupts, but his tired smile is sincere enough that it loosens the tension in Tetsurou’s shoulders. “I’ll take the jet to Osaka tonight, instead.”

“What? But we were gonna play that new game you were talking about! The… The one with the animals?” Tetsurou is fully aware that he’s whining, but it’s been weeks since they could find the time to hang out together and he just—

God, he had no idea that making Kenma CEO of his own damn company would just cause them to spend even  _ less _ time together. 

“I think Saeko needs you more than our video game night,” Kenma answers, all logical and responsible, and right, that’s why he gave Kenma the position, never mind that it was already in his will anyway in case anything happened when he came back from Afghanistan four years ago. “JARVIS will reschedule for us when the fate of the world isn’t hanging on your hands, right?”

His traitorous AI hums an affirmative, “Of course, Kozume-san,” and he slumps in defeat.

Kenma walks over towards him, coming to a stop when he’s only a couple of feet away. Cat-like golden eyes regard Tetsurou solemnly. “Whatever you do, you’re not allowed to die, alright?”

That finally pulls a cackle out of Tetsurou, and he grabs Kenma into a tight hug before his friend can even pretend to protest, burying his face in apple-scented shampoo and knowing he can’t hide the slight tremor in his body from the other man.

“No worries, kitten. That’s not in my plans anytime soon.”

  
  


***

  
  


“I don’t like it,” Sawamura whispers.

Tetsurou looks over at him, well aware of how quiet and docile Daishou has been ever since all three of them boarded the jet an hour earlier. Saeko had told him that they were heading towards SHIELD’s heli-carrier, without actually telling him where it was located, and promptly kicked him out of the co-pilot seat when he attempted to get JARVIS to hack into the aircraft’s mainframe.

The Captain, on the other hand, hasn’t taken his eyes off of the alien at all, standing guard against the pilot seats.

“What, snake eyes here giving up so easily?”

Daishou’s eyes have lost their reptilian appearance, but he’s sitting casually against the wall of the jet, ankles and wrists handcuffed as he watches Sawamura in turn.

Sawamura shakes his head. “I don’t remember it being that easy. And the guy barely reacted when I punched his jaw.”

That was… Definitely a cause for alarm. Still, Tetsurou shrugs, or at least the armour lets him make some sort of aborted movement with his shoulders. “Handled yourself well enough out there, Cap. You know, before I came in and blasted the dude on his ass.”

He knows Saeko’s hiding her laughter, even if he can’t hear it.

“... Thanks, I think,” Sawamura says dryly, and Tetsurou smirks at him, but the Captain’s next words immediately wipe it off of his face. “Director Ukai-san didn’t tell me he was calling you in.” 

Tetsurou grits his teeth. “Yeah, welcome to the club.” He looks over at the scepter that’s locked up behind a protective wall of glass at the corner of the jet. “To be fair,” he pauses as the aircraft goes through some turbulence, “I was called in for the weapon since snake eyes here doesn’t seem to have it on him right now, but I figured I could stand to be punctual this time. For once.”

“Miracles do happen, apparently,” Sawamura retorts with a grin, and God, if someone had told Tetsurou he’d be trading barbs with Captain Sawamura of the Siege Battles one day, he… Well, he probably would have thought he was having a bad trip, to be honest.

Or a good one, depending on how one looked at it.

A loud crack of thunder stops him from replying as the jet shakes a little more, and Tetsurou turns towards Saeko. “Oi, Tanaka. Ukai  _ did _ make sure these things can handle a little storm, right?”

To his growing apprehension, Saeko’s reply is terse. “Weather report didn’t say nothing about a storm, and there’s no cloud in sight. Whatever’s making this isn’t registering on our radar.”

Lightning flashes all around them as soon as she’s finished talking, turbulence getting worse and Tetsurou stiffens as Daishou glances around, taking his eyes off of Sawamura for the first time all evening.

“Don’t suppose you’re scared of a little lightning?” Sawamura asks casually, but his stance has changed. He’s getting ready for a fight, and Tetsurou knows he’s not going to like whatever happens next.

Daishou looks at them. “I don’t really dig what follows.”

One more crack of lightning, and then—

“Bogey sighted, it’s—shit, it’s heading straight for us,” Saeko snarls, just as the jet shakes with an almighty boom, and Tetsurou’s jaw drops when he catches sight of the  _ fucking dent _ in the ceiling.

“What kind of bogey was that?” Sawamura says in shock, but he’s already putting his shield up and walking over to Daishou, gaze fixed on the back of the jet. Tetsurou grabs his helmet, placing it over his head before reaching towards the panel of switches, opening the doors.

He keeps an eye on the Captain and Daishou, bringing his arms forward, blasters ready as the night skies open before them.

“You sure this is a good plan, Kuroo-san?” Sawamura yells over the wind.

Tetsurou’s reply is lost in his throat as  _ someone _ lands on the ramp, and he doesn’t know what part of the other person to focus on first: the horn-like silver and black hair resembling that of an owl, aided by the big, round golden eyes, the actual red cape flowing from those broad shoulders, beefy arms raised up high and holding a hammer in one hand, or the fact that this new entity, dressed in something out of Shakespeare’s play is looking at the rest of them with an expression that’s ridiculously apologetic.

“Hey man,” Owl dude says slowly. “I don’t really wanna fight you guys, ‘cause you seem nice and all, but I’m just here to pick my brother up if that’s cool.”

Before Tetsurou can say anything, Sawamura replies, “He’s being detained by SHIELD, so you’ll have to take it up to them,” like he’s not phased at all by the fact that this man has to be a goddamn alien too if he’s related to the criminal over by the side.

“That’s… Not going to fly, dude,” the guy says, and Tetsurou has had  _ enough. _

He shoots a blast towards the other man, who ducks to avoid it. “Didn’t want to do this, but—sorry,” and then Tetsurou gets a first row seat at experiencing the weight of the hammer, throwing him and all of his 90kg suit back against Saeko’s seat. Sawamura gets close enough to get in between Daishou and the new guy but a hit to the Captain’s side causes him to crumple over in pain. Both of the aliens take the opportunity to immediately make their leave.

Tetsurou sits up, and swears as the Asgardians escape into the night. “Now we gotta deal with two of them?”

Sawamura stands up, walking over to the doors, one hand gripping the wall. “You think he’s a friendly?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Tetsurou bites out, getting to his feet as well. “If he frees Daishou or kills him, the Tesseract’s lost.”

_ “What?” _

When Tetsurou turns towards the Captain, his face is as white as a sheet. “You didn’t know? Fuck, of course Ukai didn’t tell you,” and God, he wants to wring the SHIELD director’s neck right now, demand what his play is, but there are priorities, and Tetsurou needs to get Daishou back in custody. “No time to explain, we’ll hash out the details later,” he adds, and engages his thrusters as he leaps out of the jet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes, I did make our resident snake boi loki, and god of thunder bokuto is here too! and yeap, in the original avengers steve knew about the tesseract, but I made a conscious decision to keep daichi in the dark here, because, well
> 
> you'll see~
> 
> also I need to clarify that this was inspired by my other hq x mcu fic, "take away the suit, what am I?", but it's not in the same universe! they will have the same roots (ie this movie in particular), but this will most likely span off into a series of its own that follows the actual mcu more closely, if not in characterisation (hah) then in plot (ish)
> 
> and now, the following 2 paragraphs is something I feel like I needed to acknowledge for a moment, despite the bubble that ff so easily affords us:
> 
> **On a serious note (with punctuation and caps and all), I debated posting this up right now, when the world seems to be on fire no matter where you looked, but at the end of the day I guess I'm hoping that this will give you a few minutes of escape, because God knows I've needed escapism whenever things got too much, and I'm continents away from most of the major events currently happening. For everyone who's out there on the streets, I hope you're safe and you're taking care of one another.
> 
> **I don't know what's ao3's regulations on posting links on movements, but if you're looking for ways to help with blm, and like me, are unable to participate physically, http://blacklivesmatters(.)carrd(.)co (remove parentheses) is a good place to start.**
> 
> and back to your randomly regular escapism! please look after yourselves and those near and dear to you, and I'll see you in the next chapter. <3


	3. is this a team?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Now, I don’t know what you plan on doing here—” The Captain begins.
> 
> “I already told you, I’m stopping Suguru! Why aren’t you listening?!”
> 
> The jacked up Asgardian with the hammer is whining, and Tetsurou really doesn’t want to deal with a tantrum-throwing alien, but Sawamura doesn’t seem to rise to the bait, merely nodding placatingly.
> 
> “Then prove it,” he says. “Put that hammer down.”
> 
> “Uh yeah no,” Tetsurou starts, putting his hands up, trying to tell the Captain what a horrific idea that could turn out to be, “Dude loves his hammer—”
> 
> He hears a muttered, “You bet I do,” before the hammer gets whacked into his chest, sending him sprawling back for the fifth fucking time this evening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shakespeare in the park has commenced!

Holy hell, Daichi is _not_ equipped for this century.

He’s aware of Kuroo’s identity as Iron Man, but it’s one thing to briefly read about it on a piece of paper and another to actually watch the man jump out of _a goddamn plane._ There’s a couple of seconds where he’s just staring at the night sky, before he gets his wits about him and sighs.

As he reaches for one of the parachute bags lining up one side of the jet, Daichi hears Tanaka say over his comms, “I’d sit this one out, Cap.”

“I don’t really see how I can,” Daichi answers as he straps the bag behind him, thinking of Kuroo going up against aliens with his metal armour, and wondering if his own shield will hold up in the ensuing fight. “Plus, I thought you said you weren’t counting me out,” he adds with a grin.

Tanaka huffs. “These guys come from legend, they’re basically gods,” she tells him, but says anyway, “I’ll pick you boys up in a bit, then.”

Daichi thinks of Kuroo, of the two Asgardians, and marvels again at how the future is beginning to look more and more like a fantastical nightmare. “You know, I’ve never actually met a god dressed like he jumped straight out from a manga,” he replies lightly, terror briefly taking a hold on him before he shakes it off as best as he can, taking a running leap towards the ramp and leaping into the sky.

_“... Wait, they had mangas back then?”_

  
  


***

“JARVIS, scan for signs of non-human life, please.”

“I take it you mean to narrow that down to the two Asgardians you’re in pursuit of, sir?”

Tetsurou grins. “Everyday you amaze me at how much sarcasm you continue to soak up, J.”

“I learned from the best, sir.”

 _Damn right he did._ “Hell yeah. Right, show me what you got then,” he murmurs, and his AI throws up coordinates on the HUD, pinpointing two dots about five miles northwest from his current position, nearly 20,000 feet up in the air now after having dropped out of the jet five minutes earlier. He spares a thought towards Sawamura, grimacing when he remembers how the Captain had no idea about the weapon being the Tesseract that had gone down with him in the ocean—only to be retrieved by Kuroo Hirai during the man’s year-long search for the Captain.

That’s going to be a fun discussion to look forward to.

It doesn’t take long for two blurry figures to show up in his view, and he watches as both of them push at each other; he’s not excited about being caught in the middle of family drama, and that does sound rich, coming from him, but he really needs to both show SHIELD up and get his job done, preferably sooner than later.

So he gets JARVIS to bump up the power in his thrusters, and aims right for the new guy that had crashed their party on the jet.

“Hey, hey, what the— _arghhh_!”

Tetsurou manages to throw the Asgardian off as they touch down on the ground, watching carefully as he flips up his faceplate. From this distance, it’s easy to see that the other guy is about the same height as Tetsurou, his horned-styled hair miraculously unruffled even as he scrambles to his feet, hands on his hips as he regards Tetsurou, narrowing his eyes.

“Okay, that was a super awesome landing and all, but I was in the middle of something, so could you not, like, touch me ever again?”

There’s no visible family resemblance between this alien and the other one he’d left sitting on some sort of cliff nearby, but maybe alien genetics don’t work the same way human ones do?

“Then don’t touch my stuff,” Tetsurou points out with a shrug.

The Asgardian shakes his head, and Tetsurou’s vividly reminded of an owl fluffing its feathers. “You don’t have a clue what you’re dealing with,” he insists, a slight growl slipping into his voice.

But Tetsurou doesn’t make a living by not taking jabs whenever he can, and seriously, this guy is giving him all the material just like that. “Uh, Shakespeare in the park?” He smirks, looking around as he spreads out his arms. “Doth mother know you weareth her drapes?”

And then the guy throws his head back and _laughs._

“Oh Odin, I forgot how hilarious you humans are,” he says through a series of giggles. It takes him maybe half a minute to calm down, and Tetsurou is torn between wanting to go for drinks with the guy and also study him just to figure out what his _deal_ is, but then he adds, “But this thing is like, bigger than you, metal dude. I gotta take Suguru back to Asgard for, you know, justice.”

Tetsurou retorts, “He gives up the cube, he’s all yours. Until then, stay out of the way.” He turns around, more than ready to grab Daishou and fly back to the jet. “Damn, they really let any kind of tourists in, huh?””

He doesn’t get to take one more step before a heavy weight slams against him, sending him flying forward and taking down a tree, causing him to sprawl over the ground.

When he manages to get his bearings again, he spares a thought to be mildly impressed—but his frustration wins out in the end, because _nobody_ gets the jump on him like that. 

“... Okay.” If Owl Dude is looking for a fight, then that’s exactly what Tetsurou’s going to give to him.

The Asgardian has started to swing his hammer, but Tetsurou doesn’t give him a chance to do much, shooting a blast at him before he flies in, directing a kick that throws him back. But maybe that was the wrong move, because the guy only points his hammer upward and… Yeah, he’s summoning lightning. Of course.

Tetsurou’s caught off guard by the whole spectacle, which means all he can do is let out a muffled groan when the lightning is suddenly directed towards his suit, and he throws his hands up in a failed attempt to block the strike, gritting his teeth as he watches his suit attempt to recalibrate. Damn it, damn it, he needs to think of something _now_ —

An exhale escapes him when the attack halts, stumbling back from the instant loss of pressure, but when he blinks, his HUD throws up impossible numbers, the screen flickering in his vision.

“Power 400% capacity.”

 _Well._ “How about that.”

He sends a blast towards the alien to test out the juice the lightning had inadvertently given him, but it barely knocks the other guy off his feet and then it turns into a full out mid-air brawl as they launch into flight. Tetsurou tries his best to counter the strikes coming at him, Saeko’s voice yelling in his ear from various sessions in the ring, telling him to “watch your arms, stop fucking flailing them around, Tetsu,” but he hadn’t prepared for the possibility of fighting with an otherworldly being. He’s barely aware of the growing destruction of the European forests around them, and when they land on the ground in a heap, Tetsurou throws up a punch, only to be blocked and get struck in the face.

He gets his arms up, and both of them are immediately locked in a battle of will and strength.

There’s visible frustration in the Asgardian’s face, his mouth turned down in a scowl. “Stop making me fight you!”

Tetsurou manages a scandalised cackle, even as he watches the right arm of his armour nearly crumple under the other guy’s tight grip. “Then you stop first, dumbass!”

Clenching his jaw, he shoots a blast, hitting the alien in the face and tries for a headbutt, only to get flung back.

But before it can devolve into another fist fight, both of them are staggering from the force of a sharp edge ricocheting off of their chests, and they look up to see another figure entering the premises.

“Oi! That’s _enough_!”

Sawamura’s glowering over them from the top of a jagged rock, shield back in his hands, and Tetsurou can actively feel the waves of disappointment and annoyance from him. The man takes a moment to survey their surroundings, before jumping down, graceful and impossibly light on his feet.

Tetsurou blinks at the inscrutable look the Captain sends him, before the other man glances over at the Asgardian. “Now, I don’t know what you plan on doing here—”

“I already told you, I’m stopping Suguru! Why aren’t you listening?!”

The jacked up Asgardian with the hammer is whining, and Tetsurou really doesn’t want to deal with a tantrum-throwing alien, but Sawamura doesn’t seem to rise to the bait, merely nodding placatingly.

“Then prove it,” he says. “Put that hammer down.”

What? No, nope—

“Uh yeah no,” Tetsurou starts, putting his hands up, trying to tell the Captain what a horrific idea that could turn out to be, “Dude loves his hammer—”

He hears a muttered, “You bet I do,” before the hammer gets whacked into his chest, sending him sprawling back for the fifth fucking time this evening. When he looks up from his position on the ground, he’s helpless to stop the Asgardian from leaping up to smash his hammer against Sawamura’s shield, and nearly shuts his eyes to brace for the impending destruction.

But instead of seeing that shield shatter, the energy somehow gets rebounded, throwing the alien backward from the force, and creating a giant blast radius around them that almost knocks him back down again.

Tetsurou does a couple of checks on his suit; 25% damaged, not too bad considering he’d been in a fight with a being who could probably lift his suit with too much ease than he’s comfortable with. He gets up gingerly, and watches as the other two survey the obvious damage around them.

The quiet is broken by Daichi’s sigh of clear exasperation. “So we’re done here?”

  
  


***

  
  


It’s daybreak once the jet touches down onto the heli-carrier, and Daichi is too keyed up from both the mission, the afterparty that the Asgardians and Kuroo had subjected him to, and the knowledge that the Tesseract is at large once more, but it doesn’t stop him from gaping as soon as the doors open, and he looks around in unbridled awe.

About twenty SHIELD agents escort Daishou off; his brother, Bokuto Koutarou, who’d introduced himself on the way, walks with them to ensure he doesn’t try anything, which leaves Daichi alone with Kuroo and Agent Tanaka.

She had spent half the flight berating the former on his “weak ass form, I taught you better than that, sweetheart.”

He’s not sure why there’s a weird rolling feeling in his stomach to hear the agent refer to Kuroo with such an intimate endearment, but he’d shrugged it off, and focused on breathing deeply and tuning out everything else, including the Asgardians staring at each other in complete silence the entire way to… Wherever they are now.

Tanaka steps off first, as another agent comes to take her place at the pilot’s seat, probably to move the jet away from the landing strip. He follows her out, but jumps when a hand claps his shoulder, turning around to see Kuroo grimacing. The other man had pulled over a pair of sweats and a black hoodie over his flight suit that had been sequestered on the jet in Tanaka’s supplies, and Daichi’s starting to think that the agent had been well aware of Kuroo’s intentions before either of them had even boarded the jet to Russia yesterday.

“Quick, hide me,” Kuroo hisses, trying to use Daichi as a barrier, but an unfamiliar voice breaks his confused thoughts, dragging his gaze forward.

“Captain Sawamura.” This new person is shorter than Tanaka, but he instantly recognises the deadly grace in the way she holds herself up, glasses glimmering in the early sunlight. “I’m Agent Shimizu Kiyoko,” she introduces herself, and Daichi takes her hand, noting the careful, firm grip.

“Nice to meet you, ma’am.”

She nods, and their hands fall away. “We’ll have a debrief session soon once everyone’s settled, but I hope there wasn’t any trouble with your mission?”

At that, she flicks her eyes towards Kuroo, and Daichi has the inexplicable urge to actually follow through on the man’s previous words.

Before he can answer, though, Kuroo drapes an arm around his shoulders, seemingly giving up on hiding. “Ey, Shimizu. You’re looking pretty put together, considering the little green package you picked up in India yesterday.” There’s curiosity in his tone, and Shimizu’s expression doesn’t change except for the very slight droop in her shoulders.

“Dr. Azumane’s currently in his quarters, but you’ll meet him during the debrief, Kuroo-san,” she answers, and Daichi can hear Kuroo’s sharp inhale and muttered “hell yes,” before Shimizu turns to regard Tanaka, who’d been watching from the side. “Agent Tanaka, if you could lead them to the bridge?”

Tanaka, to his surprise, winks at her, hands cocked on her hips. “Anything for you, babe,” she replies cheerfully, and Daichi blinks as Shimizu smiles. It’s small and disappears under a second, but he doesn’t get to say anything as the agent looks at him again, nodding once before walking away.

Kuroo drops his arm, and Daichi thinks he might be pouting. “Did you bribe her when you joined SHIELD eons ago? That _has_ to be why she’s only nice to you,” he whines, scrunching up his nose, and Daichi takes back his previous assessment. Kuroo’s _definitely_ pouting.

Tanaka rolls her eyes as she cuffs his ear hard enough to hurt, ignoring his protests. “Kiyoko’s a sweetheart, I’ve no idea what you’re on about,” she answers, before shifting her gaze towards Daichi. “Holding up alright, Cap?”

“Uh, yeah.” He clears his throat, as both Tanaka and Kuroo smirk at him, looking identical despite her blonde hair and his rooster bedhead, still sticking up despite the fact that his Iron Man helmet must squash the damn thing whenever he’s in the armour. “This is… Kind of familiar, actually.”

(It is, even if he can’t help looking for Michimiya’s wide smile and Hirai-san’s sly grin in their faces for a second too long.)

He takes another long look around the place, breath catching in his throat at the evidence of everything that has changed since he died less than half a year ago.

Thankfully, Tanaka’s words bring him out of the fugue that usually threatens to overcome him when he starts to think too much about the past. “Gentlemen, you might wanna step inside in a little bit. It’s gonna get a little hard to breathe.”

Around him, the buzzing seemed to have increased since they’d stepped off the jet, and someone calls out, “Secure the deck!” as the entire heli-carrier starts to shake underneath their feet. Daichi looks at Tanaka, not bothering to conceal the astonishment in his voice. “Is this a submarine?”

Kuroo whistles beside him. “Damn, I didn’t think SHIELD had the balls to put Azumane in a submerged, pressurized metal container.”

Who _is_ this Azumane person?

Tanaka shrugs, but she doesn’t look overly concerned. Instead, her eyes shift towards him, smirk playing on her lips as she flips her blonde hair back. “Not quite a submarine.”

He frowns at her cryptic words, but the tremors get a little stronger, and as he walks over to the edge, he’s struck with the vision of the motors rising instead of being engulfed by the ocean underneath.

_They’re going upwards._

This whole thing is another _plane_ and suddenly, Daichi doesn’t feel all that great about it anymore.

Bad things always happen on an aircraft when it comes to him. And there’s the thing with the Tesseract again.

Kuroo seems to share the same opinion that something’s going to go pear-shaped, but he’s cackling, eyes bright and mischievous as he stares at Tanaka, hands deep in the pocket of his sweats. “Please tell your boss that when things inevitably blow up, I get first dibs on front row seats.”

  
  


***

  
  


He lets Tanaka drop both of them off at an empty room with a bathroom to “Freshen up, Saeko, we literally fought two aliens in the span of an hour,” but as soon as the door closes, Sawamura whirls around on him, jaw clenched and arms crossed over his broad chest.

“How did SHIELD get their hands on the Tesseract? And why did Daishou steal it from them? And why were you informed about the weapon?”

Tetsurou thinks righteous fury suits the Captain too well; he can’t help but be rankled at the flurry of questions directed towards him though, as if this was his doing at all. “I can answer questions one and three, so steady on with the weird accusatory tone you’ve got going on there, Cap,” he replies, eyes narrowing.

“I’m not—I am not accusing _you_ ,” Sawamura says pointedly through a heavy exhale, and oh. That’s. _Well._ That’s new. The way he looks around the room, refusing to say anything else suggests who exactly he’s accusing. “Questions one and three, then. Please.”

“Dear ol’ Dad found the Tesseract when he was conducting the search for your body,” Tetsurou answers readily, taking in the naked shock on Sawamura’s face. “Yeah. And uh. SHIELD got a hold of it when Aunt Yui became founder and director, and Dad was on the board then, too. At least, that’s what I know.” He stumbles over Aunt Yui’s name when he sees the Captain blanch, but continues. “I’m here to work with Dr. Azumane to actually help find the Tesseract, since Daishou seemed to have sent it off somewhere after he stole it from SHIELD a few days ago.”

He exhales, running a hand through his hair as he thinks about the second question from the Captain. “As for what he wants? World domination? Who the fuck knows. It’s a volatile energy source, but unlimited apparently, and SHIELD’s seemingly had it for nearly fifty years. They haven’t seemed to have come close to figuring out its shit, though.” He’s not sure if he should say anything about the Avengers Initiative, because that is a lofty and impossible thought dreamed by idealists, and he’s a _futurist._

Besides, there is no way SHIELD would ever approve of him being on a team designed to be heroes, when he can barely wake up some days without thinking about sand and water in his mouth and Nekomata’s gasping, final words.

Sawamura uncrosses his arms, hands on his hips as he surveys the room. Tetsurou absently wonders if he’s looking for cameras and bugs. “They’re probably waiting for us at the bridge,” he says at last, frowning.

That doesn’t concern Tetsurou in the least, but he guesses the Captain is probably starting to feel bad about it, even though he’s also showing his growing distrust in the entire situation right now. “You go on ahead, I need to brush up on some homework,” he says dismissively as he takes out his glasses, and opens the door without waiting for a reply.

Saeko greets him with a grin on the other side, leaning against the wall. “You boys done making yourselves pretty?”

“Give me a few minutes, I forgot to powder my nose,” he retorts, and glances over at Sawamura. “Your concierge awaits. I’ll find my way there, don’t worry.”

He’s ready for the ear-pulling, but it doesn’t stop him from groaning at the pain as he swats ineffectively at her. The Captain stares at both of them, but his shoulders don’t seem to be as tense as they were half a minute ago. “Alright,” he nods, and Tetsurou watches as he follows Saeko down the hallway, before closing the door.

“JARVIS, pull up the latest papers Azumane has on gamma radiation and its effects on thermonuclear astrophysics in the last three years, cross-reference that with what we know of the Tesseract now along with Sakusa’s notes,” he instructs, tapping his glasses as he paces around the room. “In the meantime, lemme know when Ukai starts interrogating Daishou.”

“Will do, sir.”

It takes him about ten minutes before he figures out what exactly the Asgardian is planning to do, and it’s sad how stupidly lame and accurate he’d been about the world domination joke.

But it still doesn’t exactly answer why SHIELD had the thing in the first place, and he has a sickening feeling that the reason Sawamura was kept in the dark about the whole thing is simpler than any theories he can conjure right now with too little context.

After all, if SHIELD really wanted to, they could have just finagled a way to put their bugs back into Sawamura’s apartment that didn’t involve the Captain’s own experiences with 1960s military weapons.

“Sir,” JARVIS interrupts him just as he’s getting sidetracked by one of Azumane’s more interesting and yet irrelevant points. “Director Ukai-san is currently in the containment chamber with Daishou Suguru.”

“Sweet,” he murmurs, and immediately leaves the room, glasses still perched on his nose. He bumps into Agent Shimizu along the way, who looks at him like she knows exactly what he’d been up to, but she entertains his distraction efforts, probably in pity, and tells him that Kenma had managed to beat her score on who could beat the boss levels in MonHun during their drive to Haneda Airport together. All the while, JARVIS throws up the transcript of Ukai and Daishou’s conversation on the screen of his glasses, and he barely manages to hold back his grimace at Daishou’s cocky confidence countering Ukai’s fury. 

He catches snippets of the conversation from the bridge as they draw closer, something about an army, and… Daishou’s adopted? That would be something to have issues about, he thinks, not that he’s not acquainted with familial drama himself.

“I think it’s about the mechanics,” a quiet, low voice pipes up uncertainly, almost like it was a question. “Iridium. What do they need the iridium for?”

That, Tetsurou can answer, and God, he’s glad someone else seems to understand the magnitude of what they’re dealing with when it comes to the Tesseract. “It’s a stabilizing agent,” he says, pulling his shoulders back as he walks in to meet several eyes trained on him, Shimizu immediately going to a darker corner on the bridge to survey them all.

Saeko’s lounging in a chair, Sawamura sat a few seats away from her. The other Asgardian, Bokuto, is standing up and frowning in visible confusion, while the other man he’s not met, but is certain is Dr. Azumane Asahi, celebrated physicist, thanks to his shoulder-length brown hair, impressive goatee and that constantly hunted look on his expression from all of the photos Tetsurou’s seen of him, looks at him with recognition.

There’s another agent in the room too, and Tetsurou immediately waves hello. “Takeda, thought you were on vacation.”

Agent Takeda, Ukai’s right-hand man and undoubtedly the better half of the work husbands power couple, smiles serenely, eyes bunching up behind his glasses as he rocks slightly on his heels. “Unfortunately, all holidays must come to an end. Unless that’s not the case for billionaires?”

“You know how it is,” Tetsurou winks, and continues on his previous thought. “It means the portal won’t collapse on itself like it did at SHIELD,” he says, glancing at Sawamura, whose expression is impassive right now. He passes Bokuto, patting his bare arm. “No hard feelings, by the way, you got a mean swing.”

And Bokuto proves how endearing he is compared to his brother by beaming happily as he replies with utmost sincerity, “Thanks dude! You were pretty rad yourself.”

Tetsurou flashes him a grin, and continues on his walk towards the command chair, taking in the screens on either side. “Also, means the portal can open as wide, stay as long as Daishou wants.” He clasps a hand over his left eye, frowning as he spins around. “How does Ukai even see this?”

Takeda raises his eyebrows, smile still on his features. “He turns.”

Ugh. “Sounds exhausting,” Tetsurou declares, and continues as he flicks at the screen that’s currently showing Tanaka Ryuunosuke’s status, breathing going a little shallow as he takes in the ‘Unknown’ status regarding his whereabouts. “The rest of the raw materials, Hawkeye can get his hands on pretty easily,” he murmurs, cradling the edge of the screen and feeling for a… _There we go._ He turns around as soon as he attaches the hacking implant, regarding everyone before him, fiddling with his glasses. “Only major component he still needs is a power source. High energy density, something to kick start the cube.”

“When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?” Takeda asks cheerfully, because even though he’s the more bearable one compared to Ukai, neither of them are ever particularly impressed by his genius.

(No, it doesn’t bug him _at all_.)

“Last night.” Or five minutes ago, same difference. “Interrupted video game night,” he says, nodding over at Shimizu. “Had nothing to do except read Sakusa’s notes. The extraction theory papers? I _did_ do the class reading.”

“For once,” Saeko murmurs.

Bokuto, bless his alien heart, smiles with obvious pride. “Man, Sakusa’s so smart.”

Tetsurou doesn’t get to bicker or agree or even ask how the hell Bokuto knew the elusive Dr. Sakusa, because Sawamura finally speaks up, gaze fixed on him. “Does Daishou need any particular kind of power source?”

This time Azumane answers from his corner of the room. “He’s gotta heat the cube up to 120 million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier.”

Exactly. “Unless Sakusa has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunnelling effect,” he replies as he walks over, which is no mean feat and Tetsurou feels a pang of respect for the man, even as it would potentially doom the world as they know it.

Azumane must feel the same, except he hides it better, eyes glimmering just the slightest bit as he watches Tetsurou approach him. “Well, if he could do that, he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet.”

Tetsurou comes to a stop in front of the other genius in the room, grinning. “Oh my God, finally someone who speaks Japanese.”

He hears Sawamura muttering, “Is that what just happened?” but he’s too busy making friends as both he and Azumane bow their heads in greeting, clasping each other in a handshake.

“Great to meet you, Dr. Azumane,” Tetsurou says, taking in the sight of the other man as their hands fall away. “Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And... I’m a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster.”

That causes Azumane to flush. “Thanks.”

He has a brief moment to wonder if anyone’s informed Sawamura and Bokuto of Azumane’s abilities, before Ukai enters the place and shatters his happy bubble of reasoning and intelligence.

“Dr. Azumane is only here to track the cube. I was hoping you’d join him, considering you decided to crash the party earlier than intended,” Ukai says with a twitch in his jaw.

“Aww, Cap and Saeko have no complaints, do they?” Tetsurou replies, false brightness in his tone as he glances at the two. 

In response, Saeko rolls her eyes. “Speak for yourself, I ain’t your personal chauffeur,” she says, but there’s fondness in her words, and Tetsurou feels himself relax a little, even as he looks towards Sawamura.

The Captain’s gaze is heavy with more questions, but he shakes his head dutifully. “I appreciated the help. Uh, no offence, Bokuto.”

“None taken!”

And with that, Tetsurou turns back towards Azumane, unable to hold back his excitement. “Shall we play, doctor?”

The other man smiles. “Let’s play some.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so I know the sequence is a little different in the movie, but in the mcu, cap and tony only meet in stuttengard when they capture loki whereas daichi and kuroo are already acquainted with each other here for some time before they're thrown into the mission
> 
> as for the tesseract and shield keeping it from daichi, well. they ARE spies, and what's a spy without a couple of secrets? ;)
> 
> coming up: dick measuring occurs and the heli-carrier nearly falls out of the freaking sky
> 
> also! just a quick note: in this version daichi goes into the arctic ocean in the 60s, as opposed to cap in the 40s, on account of the fact that it was a completely different war and I wanted to make them all a bit younger than their mcu counterparts haha


	4. secrets and lies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tetsurou tilts his head in agreement. “And you’ll get your cube back, no fuss. What the hell’s Phase 2?”
> 
> A slam jolts all three of them, and Tetsurou turns to look at Sawamura who’s just entered the lab, whose face is stricken with fury and distress, an assault rifle on the bench in front of him. “Phase 2 is SHIELD uses the cube to make weapons.” He looks over at Tetsurou. “Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow.”
> 
> It should be hilarious, but the last thing Tetsurou feels like right now is laughing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah it's That scene

_ Meet me in the lab once you shake off everyone else. _

_ 7.23AM _

Daichi doesn’t actually check his phone until after he gets Shimizu to brief him on Azumane, eyes widening at her quick, ruthless rundown of the man’s history.

“And you’re sure it’s safe to have him on board?” he asks dubiously.

Her lips quirk up, but he doesn’t find much reassurance in them, unfortunately. “Don’t worry, Captain. We’ve taken plenty of precautions to ensure everyone’s safety.”

He also gains more intel on Daishou’s abilities from Bokuto, who tells him, “He’s really good at magic and shapeshifting stuff, used to prank me all the time when we were just five hundred years your Midgard time,” with a grin that borders on ridiculously and inappropriately proud.

Also, hearing that Bokuto has lived for over a millennium is fucking with his head almost as bad as his own death and resurrection had, so he begs off for a moment to be alone, and that’s when he sees the text from Kuroo.

Watching Kuroo spin their heads around as he spoke effortlessly about… Thermo physics and collisions was like a blast from the past with Hirai-san, except he’s pretty sure Kuroo’s even smarter than his father had been, and Kuroo Hirai was… A magnetic genius.

And that causes wariness to rise up in him, even though he knows that Kuroo isn’t about to sell him out to the same organisation that he’s on less than marginally-friendly terms with, based on their conversation earlier. It’s just that geniuses, in his experience, don’t really seem to have anything great in store for him.

Besides the shield, and the serum, he reluctantly thinks.

He finds the lab after a couple of wrong turns and getting the directions from a terrified-looking SHIELD staff, and walks in just in time to see Kuroo poking Azumane with a zapping stick, and the bottom drops from his stomach.

“I really don’t think that’s a good idea,” he says firmly, announcing his presence, but Kuroo ignores him, continuing to stare at Azumane.

“You really have got a lid on it, haven’t you?” 

The doctor shrugs, but Daichi keeps a close watch on the slight irritation on his features, and tries to get Kuroo’s attention again.

“Kuroo-san, you texted?” he insists, unable to stop the impatience from bleeding into his tone.

And Kuroo probably senses it, because he turns towards Daichi, brow furrowed and hair looking a little crazier than it had been half an hour ago. The glasses that had been perched on his nose earlier are still there, and he fiddles with them as he finally regards Daichi. “Yeah. You asked why Daishou stole the cube from SHIELD, and we figured that out. But why didn’t they just tell you about it? Why did Ukai call both me and Azumane in, when having just one of us to do the job would already be way below our pay grade?”

Azumane blinks at the other man. “Um, thank you?”

Kuroo flips his hand carelessly before running fingers through his hair, causing them to spike up even more and Daichi recognises the way that he’s getting ready to gear up for another rant, from meals together and walks around the different districts of Tokyo, before they were thrown into this situation. “You, Saeko and one of us would have been enough for this entire mission, provided that Daishou doesn’t do anything remotely clever. What isn’t Ukai, SHIELD telling us? You  _ know _ he’s hiding something.”

Daichi’s struck by the certainty in the other man’s voice, full of confidence and frustration. “Well, he  _ is _ a spy,” he relents, and takes a glance at Azumane, who’s kept quiet during Kuroo’s entire spiel. “What do you think, doctor?”

He looks up at them, before shifting his glance down towards the worktable, but answers softly, “Daishou’s jab at Director Ukai. ‘A warm light for all mankind.’ I think that was meant for Kuroo-san, actually.”

Kuroo watches the doctor closely. “Me.”

Azumane nods, looking like he’s about to regret his next words, but pushes on anyway. “How long will your K-Reactors keep that tower running?”

Daichi gazes at Kuroo, who straightens up against the table he’d been leaning against. “That’s just the prototype. I’m kind of the only name in clean energy right now.” Funny enough, Daichi’s aware of that too; Kuroo’s done plenty of late night rants about the government’s refusal to adopt his clean energy proposals.

“Shouldn’t SHIELD have brought you in then, if they were planning to mess with the Tesseract in the first place?” Daichi points out, not liking the thought of the Tesseract being used once more, even if it was supposedly for mankind’s benefit.

“We’ll probably find out once my decryption programmer finishes breaking into all of SHIELD’s secure files, then,” Kuroo replies with a shrug, and wait, what?

“You’re  _ hacking _ them?” Daichi splutters.

Kuroo waggles his eyebrows, and he’s really not sure why he doesn’t feel as incensed as he should—the man has just openly admitted to breaking into government files with no remorse, and yet all he wants to do is just ask him  _ how. _

He’s not sure if he’s ready to hear  _ why, _ though.

Fortunately, Kuroo beats him to it before he can ask. “JARVIS has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours we’ll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide.”

It takes a moment for Daichi to find his words, and when he says them aloud, a spike of foreboding pierces through him. “I don’t know if I can wait a few hours.”

Kuroo blinks at him, clearly not expecting the response. “Cap?”

There’s a growing prickle of annoyance at the back of his neck, like he’s nearly got all the puzzle pieces but the bigger picture is still missing, and it causes him to pace. “I think Daishou’s trying to wind us up. He means to start a war, and he’ll succeed if we don’t have the right answers and get our heads on straight.”

“Are you suggesting we sit down and follow orders, then?” Kuroo retorts defiantly, crossing his arms, and Daichi almost snorts, because Michimiya must have toned down on his profound inability to follow orders whenever she’d talked about him to everyone else.

Daichi shakes his head anyway, coming to a stop. “Maybe. I don’t know. Find the cube and we’ll figure out what comes next. I’ve got some of my own searching to do,” he murmurs distractedly, nodding at both Azumane and Kuroo before he leaves the lab, mind fraught with worse and worser possible scenarios about the situation they’ve just found themselves in.

  
  


***

  
  


Tetsurou watches the Captain’s back as he leaves, fingers tapping the edge of a table relentlessly. What would Sawamura be looking for?

“You two seem to get along pretty well,” Azumane says, causing him to jolt upright.

“Huh?”

Azumane nods at the door, eyes still fixed on the calculations before him. “You and the Captain. And… You’re right.”

Tetsurou raises his eyebrow, but doesn’t stop himself from preening just the slightest, even as he sidesteps the doctor’s earlier words. “I usually am. But refresh my memory, please.”

And normally, that would get people like Saeko, Kenma and Yaku to roll their eyes, or for Sawamura to look at him like he wasn’t sure whether to laugh or deck him, but Azumane only smiles, stroking the scruff on his chin. “They could have just asked either you or me to find the Tesseract, they didn’t need both of us. We find the cube, keep Daishou under lock and guard, and we go home? That’s… It’s too easy, Kuroo-san.”

Sawamura’s words echo in his head.  _ “I don’t remember it being that easy.” _

“But, well. I kinda like the idea of being able to go home once we’re done here, too,” the doctor finishes, and Tetsurou leans back to regard him. 

“Or you’ll be suiting up with us when the whole thing blows up in Daishou’s face,” he replies with an inviting smirk, but Azumane shakes his head, shoulders a little higher than it had been a few seconds ago.

Tetsurou waits as Azumane fiddles with the computer, even though they’ve already locked the model, leaving them with virtually nothing else to do until the cube’s found, and then looks up to watch him carefully. “I’m… Exposed, like a nerve. There is no suit of armour for me, Kuroo-san. And I’d like it to stay that way.”

There are plenty of things that Tetsurou wants to say to that, but a ping from his phone drags his attention away, and he sighs, taking it out to look at the text on the screen.

_ Conducting my interview in fifteen seconds. Tuning in? _

_ 8.10AM _

He grins, and sends a thumbs up emoji in response. A few taps on his phone, and then Tetsurou is watching a live feed of the security cameras around the containment chamber, where Daishou’s standing still right in the middle of it. A glance at Azumane cements another idea in him, and he takes off his glasses, placing them in his pocket.

“Hey doc. Up for some reality TV?”

  
  


***

  
  


He runs into fewer agents than he thought he would as he makes his way deeper into the hull of the ship, but he still doesn’t find anything incriminating enough to justify the doubts in his head. 

But he can’t stop yet.

Daichi takes a quick look around, and jogs around the hallway, before coming to a stop in front of a heavy iron door at the other end of the corridor.

“Well. That looks promising.”

  
  


***

  
  


Sometimes, Tetsurou forgets that Saeko is a phenomenal actor, and one of the reasons she’s so great at it is because she’s absolutely mastered the art of spinning half-truths into everything she says and does.

“I wanna know what you’ve done with Hawkeye.” She’s perched on an overturned crate, legs apart, elbows on knees as she leans forward to watch Daishou.

The Asgardian spreads his arms, grinning. “I’d say I’ve expanded his mind.”

The view on his phone shifts as JARVIS chooses a camera that better showcases the agent’s deadpan expression. “Impressive, really. But okay. Once you’ve won. Once you’re… King of the mountain. What happens to his mind, then?”

Daishou takes a step forward, tilting his head as he raises a brow. “Ah. A worried sister?”

Saeko shrugs, arms crossed as she leans back. “Too hard to believe? You’ve got the big lug over on the other side of this ship nearly bringing my jet down just to get you.”

At that, Daishou rolls his eyes. “He’s  _ not _ my brother. But you’re different, aren’t you? Come on, tell me.”

Something shifts in Saeko’s features, and her hands momentarily grip her thighs, before she clasps them together. “We were… Separated. As kids. And I had to do certain things, hone a specific skill set to survive.” Her voice is low, almost hypnotic. “Didn’t really care who I used it for, or on. And then I got on SHIELD’s radar in a bad way.”

One of the softest smiles Tetsurou’s ever seen graces her lips. “They were testing him out on the field, and he made a different call. I owe my life to that kid, blood related or not.”

“If I said I’d spare the guy, what would you do?”

Saeko stares at him. “Not let you out.”

A terrible laugh escapes Daishou, and Tetsurou has to suppress the urge to tell JARVIS to open up that hole he knows is right underneath the chamber. “Damn. You’ve got the entire world in the balance, and you’d bargain for one guy?”

“Eh, regimes fall every day,” Saeko counters, but her expression hardens. “I get my brother back, and maybe I’d stop seeing so much red in my ledger.”

Tetsurou hears Azumane exhale beside him as Daishou comes closer to the glass. “Can you, though?” He asks softly, and even though he’s whispering, his voice echoes. “São Paulo? The hospital fire?  _ Ryuunosuke _ told me everything. You left him behind to fend for himself while your ledger drips red, and you think saving him is going to change anything?”

Azumane clears his throat. “Kuroo-san, should we—”

Tetsurou doesn’t get a chance to answer, because he jumps as Daishou suddenly steps forward in a flash, Saeko visibly shrinking in his wake. “You lie and kill for liars and killers like yourself. You pretend you’re separate and you’ve got your own code, but you know,” he growls, eyes shifting to slits, “That they’re a part of you, and they’re  _ never _ going to go away.”

  
  


***

  
  


“No,” Daichi whispers vehemently, glaring down at the steel crate filled with familiar weapons of an era he thought he’d stopped and brought down with him.

  
  


**

  
  


Daishou slams the glass of his cell, and Saeko flinches.

“I’m not touching your brother, Tanaka,” he hisses, and Tetsurou glimpses a forked tongue slipping out. “Not until I make him kill you, slowly.  _ Intimately. _ Make him turn his back on the sister that had once turned hers on him, and when he wakes up just long enough to see his work and screams? I’ll split his skull!” There’s spittle flying from his lips as he roars at Saeko. “This is my bargain,  _ bitch _ .”

Saeko’s eyes are wide with disgust and horror as she stands up to turn away, tears clinging to her cheeks. “You’re a monster.”

“Nah,” Daishou snickers. “You guys brought him here.”

And then Tetsurou comes to the same conclusion almost as fast as Saeko does, because his head jerks up as he looks at Azumane, who goes completely pale.

Saeko’s words float up to them as he keeps his eyes on the doctor. “So, Azumane… That’s your play.” A pause, and her words are quiet, firm. “I’m heading to the nerds in the lab, send Bokuto too. Thanks for your cooperation.”

Tetsurou shuts the screen of his phone, but Azumane’s already looking around, arms wrapped around his body as he trembles. “Doc, hey—” he starts, but one of the monitors beeps, catching their attention. It’s the one that’s running JARVIS’ decryption programme.

Azumane’s closer, and as he peers at the screen, his eyes widen in clear shock and terror. “Kuroo-san, there’s something here called Phase 2 and it… It looks a hell lot like building nuclear weapons.”

“What?” Tetsurou inhales, and rushes over to his side, eyes roving over numerous blueprints and schematics—and God, some of them look so fucking familiar, because he’s worked on them before, extensively, and he  _ knows _ them like back of his hand. “These… These shouldn’t even exist anymore,” he mumbles in disbelief. “KI—”

The rest of his words get cut off when the door opens, Ukai striding into the room with a grim expression. 

“What are you up to now, Kuroo-san?” The director greets wearily.

Tetsurou’s suddenly hit by the thought that this man whom he’s shared meals with, bantered at, dismissed phone calls from and on one memorable occasion, played volleyball with in the middle of winter, is the boss of Japan’s government spy organisation—he’s  _ the spy  _ through and through, and bile rises in his throat when he thinks of how much Ukai must have hidden from him.

“Uh... Kind of wondering the same thing about you,” he replies, not very successful in hiding the suspicion in his voice. It makes Ukai narrow his one good eye at Tetsurou.

“You’re supposed to be locating the Tesseract.”

Azumane pipes up, his voice surprisingly steady. “We are. The model’s locked and we’re sweeping for a signature now. When we get a hit, we’ll have the location within half a mile.”

Tetsurou tilts his head in agreement. “And you’ll get your cube back, no fuss.” His eyes flicker towards the monitor, and something in his head tells him that he can’t wait, he needs to know  _ why _ SHIELD still has access to weapons that should have been destroyed years ago. “What the hell’s Phase 2?”

A slam jolts all three of them, and Tetsurou turns to look at Sawamura who’s just entered the lab, whose face is stricken with fury and distress, an assault rifle on the bench in front of him. “Phase 2 is SHIELD uses the cube to make weapons.” He looks over at Tetsurou. “Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow.”

It should be hilarious, but the last thing Tetsurou feels like right now is laughing.

When he turns to look at Ukai, the director’s expression is calm, even indulgent. “Captain, SHIELD gathered everything related to the Tesseract. It doesn’t mean—”

And nope, he can’t listen to this utter  _ bullshit _ anymore.

“Sorry, Ukai-san,” Tetsurou grins darkly, baring his teeth as he flips the monitor around. “I’d recognise these anywhere with my eyes closed. What were you  _ lying _ ?”

Sawamura’s eyes snap towards him. “You recognise them?”

Oh.

Tetsurou swallows. “These are old KI weapons. I stopped making these four years ago, after—after Afghanistan,” he says tightly, resisting the urge to put a hand against the arc reactor, safely hidden underneath his hoodie. “Apparently SHIELD decided to keep some of them and give them an upgrade.” And he knows Sawamura is aware of this, of his bloody past and the bodies and the deaths that his fortune is built upon, but they’ve never explicitly talked about it, and he knows why now.

The Captain watches him with something too close to distrust, and Tetsurou feels like he’s shrunk to an inch tall in the other man’s gaze, even as resentment claws at him.

Just then, Saeko arrives, with Bokuto in tow and the sight of someone whom he thought he could actually trust nearly knocks him off of his feet when he realizes Saeko  _ works _ for Ukai, she must have—

“Did you know about this?” slips from his lips, gaze fixed on her.

But Saeko doesn’t pay him any attention, and it stings more than it should have. “Doc, you wanna think about removing yourself from this environment?” she directs at Azumane instead.

And shit, Azumane, he shouldn’t—but there’s a building pain at the back of Tetsurou’s skull, and he can’t seem to think as to why the doctor shouldn’t be here right now.

“You guys brought me here in the first place,” Azumane replies, and his voice is lower, deeper than it has been all morning. “And since I’m here anyway, I’d like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction.”

Ukai doesn’t miss a beat at the accusation.

He points at Bokuto. “Because of  _ this _ guy.”

_ What? _

Bokuto blinks, stunned. “Me?”

The director exhales, running a hand through his unruly blonde hair, keeping his gaze on the Asgardian. “Your little grudge match last year that leveled a small town in Okinawa showed us that not only are we not alone in the universe, we’re also hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned.”

“I… But my people are cool with you guys,” Bokuto splutters, jaw dropping as he spreads his hands. “We want nothing but peace!”

“But you’re not the only people out there, are you?” Ukai presses, stalking forward. “And you’re not the only threat. Hell, your little brother’s in the containment chamber right now because he murdered eighty people and turned one of my best agents into his personal lackey!”

Tetsurou’s breath catches in his throat, because he can’t deny the truth in the older man’s words, but is creating alien-grade weaponry really the way to go about things?

“The world’s filling up with people who can’t be matched, they can’t be controlled,” the director adds, but Sawamura cuts in.

His voice is biting, rebuking as he says, “Like you controlled the cube?”

Bokuto seems to have gotten over his jaw drop, because frustration spreads across his expression. “It’s because of your work with the Tesseract that Suguru even came here! You’re practically signalling to all the realms that Earth’s ready for war!”

Ukai raises an eyebrow, unrepentant. “You forced us to. We had to come up with something.”

Tetsurou can’t help but huff in disgust, headache building, as he rolls his eyes. “Nuclear deterrent. ‘Cause  _ that _ always calms everything right down.”

The director shifts his gaze towards Tetsurou, calculating and cool. “Remind me again how you made your fortune, Kuroo-san?”

That _bastard_ —

“Don’t need to, you guys seem to be capable enough of reminding yourselves,” he bites out in response. He’s ready to rip right into Ukai, but Sawamura’s voice is a bucket of ice cold water over his head and his swirling thoughts.

“Have you been lying to me this whole time, Kuroo-san?”

The headache intensifies, but Tetsurou can’t focus on it, not when Sawamura’s just accused him of being a liar _ for the past two months they’ve known each other. _

_ “I’m not accusing you,” _ rings in his head and fuck, it really shouldn’t be this painful, he’s known his whole life that there was no way he could measure up, not to the Captain but he’s also not about to take this lying down, shoulders back and fists clenched as he glares at Sawamura.

“You think I’d willingly spend time with you just to fucking  _ lie _ to you?” he retorts.

There’s a brief flash of something resembling regret on Sawamura’s features, long enough for Tetsurou to catch it before it’s replaced with stubbornness. “Why did your father take the Tesseract?”

His father,  _ again. _ God, don’t these people have anything better to do than to talk about a dead man? “You think my dad gave enough of a shit to tell me?” He aims for dark humour, and falls flat enough to land on too truthful, wincing at his words, but he can’t stop himself from adding, “Look, I’m not  _ not _ blaming SHIELD, but there is potential in the Tesseract, Cap.”

Sawamura’s jaw clenches as he watches Tetsurou. “For destruction. Chaos. I thought history would have taught you all of this. You people should have left it buried in the ocean.”

Tetsurou stares back at him. “Like  _ you _ were?”

Saeko’s voice breaks through the haze of rage that has slowly descended over him, but it only turns his anger towards her. “Boys, I think it’s time for you to put your dicks away,” she says in a clipped, firm tone, the one she’d used back when she was only Kenma’s assistant Toda Sayori. Back before he’d entrusted his life in her hands, willingly. “Doctor Azumane, if you’ll follow me,” she continues, but Azumane’s retreated to a corner, and Tetsurou thinks his entire body might be shaking, eyes glazed over.

“SHIELD doesn’t even need Kuroo-san’s weapons at this rate. We’re a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We… We’re a time-bomb,” he whispers softly, but his words make Tetsurou flinch, mind throwing up images of his death creations from mere years ago. “And you can’t even bring me anywhere, you rented my room out to the other psycho on this ship.”

At that, Bokuto growls. “Oi, oi, be careful what you’re saying about Suguru.”

But Azumane doesn’t even seem to acknowledge his words. Ukai, on the other hand is back on his PR bullshit, hands up and palms out as he talks to the doctor placatingly. “The cell was just in case—”

“In case you needed to kill me, but you can’t!” Azumane shouts over him, no sign of the meek demeanour from a minute ago, eyes flashing green as he explodes in rage.  _ “I know! I tried!” _

Jesus Christ.

Tetsurou resists the urge to remember his own most recent flirtation with Lady Death, but the way his heart is beating against his chest is a stark reminder of his own battles, as Azumane trudges on in a defeated murmur. “I got low. I didn’t see an end, so I put a bullet in my mouth, and the other guy spat it out! So I moved on, focused on helping other people. I was  _ good _ ,” his voice breaks, a crack of thunder in the silence, “Until you guys dragged me here and put everyone in danger!”

He exhales loudly, looking absolutely frazzled as he stares at everyone. “Agent Shimizu asked me about my secret. Do you guys wanna know?”

Tetsurou has enough time to glance down, breath catching in his throat before he registers Saeko and Ukai’s hands grabbing their guns.

Sawamura breaks the quiet. “Doctor Azumane… Put down the scepter, please.”

Azumane starts, looks down, and is visibly shocked at the sight of Daishou’s scepter in his hand.

But a beep drags their attention, and Tetsurou catches the reading on the computer screen. “Found the cube.”

Azumane places the scepter down, and immediately sighs, running a hand through his hair as he heads over towards the computer. “Right. I—I guess our jobs are done here, then, Kuroo-san.”

“For you, yeah,” Tetsurou answers, shaking his head as he turns away, heart still racing too fast for his liking. “I can get there quicker than anyone here in the suit.”

“Look, the Tesseract needs to be returned to Asgard, you guys have no idea what you’re doing,” Bokuto argues, but Tetsurou’s already turning to leave, ready to remove himself from whatever the hell is happening right now.

He doesn’t get the pleasure of storming out, though, because someone grabs his shoulder through the hoodie, too close to his chest, inches away from the arc reactor and that instantly sends a wave of  _ panic fear  _ **_attack_ ** all over him.

When he violently rips himself away from the grip, chest heaving, he’s faced with Sawamura’s look of surprise, his hand still hanging in mid-air.

“ _ Never. _ Do that again,” Tetsurou breathes out harshly, before he stands up straight, using his height to loom over the Captain. 

Sawamura frowns at him, head tilted back slightly to meet his eyes. “Sorry. But you shouldn’t go alone, Kuroo-san.”

“You can’t stop me, Captain,” Tetsurou sneers down at him, still feeling the adrenaline rushing through him and fueling the hostility he’s suddenly feeling towards Sawamura, but the Captain merely rolls his eyes, strong arms crossed in defiance.

“Put on the suit and we’ll find out, Iron Man.”

Tetsurou doesn’t even get to think of a witty reply because suddenly, Azumane yelps a high-pitched “Oh my God!” and then the entire lab  _ fucking explodes _ .

  
  


***

  
  


One moment, he’s this close to socking Kuroo Tetsurou in the jaw.

Next thing Daichi knows, he’s thrown clear across the room, glass shards raining around them as part of the floor gives way with a deafening crash; someone screams and he’s not sure it isn’t him, but when he blinks, Tetsurou’s right beside him on the part of the floor that’s still holding up, smoke all around them.

“Put on the suit, Iron Man,” he repeats breathlessly, rolling around and scrambling to his feet.

Kuroo blinks up at him, and draws out a long, “Yeap,” as he tries to get up as well. Daichi reaches out and helps him get all the way up until he’s standing, leaning against the somehow still-intact doorway, before they both make their way out into the chaos-riddled corridor. There are people running past them, yelling at one another, but Daichi’s instinct is to immediately leap into the fray, keeping his hand on Kuroo’s back, head whipping around to look for whatever might have caused the explosion.

Suddenly, Kuroo turns to him, eyes wide and soot on his face. Daichi can make out a trail of blood on the side of the other man’s forehead, but Kuroo grabs his wrist and blurts out, “Comms! You’ve still got them on you, right?”

“Yes,” he answers, a beat too slow. Kuroo nods, though, and then releases his wrist to take out his glasses, the ones Daichi had seen him wearing earlier, before—before whatever the last fifteen minutes was. “Takeda’s talking about what the fuck just happened,” he says, as they sprint down the debris-filled hallway past SHIELD staff trying to contain the damage, and that’s when Daichi realises the comms piece in his ear is buzzing with voices, and he catches someone saying, “... Turbine’s loose. Mostly intact, but it’s impossible to get out there and make repairs while we’re in the air.”

Takeda’s voice is filled with urgency. “We lose one more engine, we won’t be. Somebody’s got to get inside and patch that engine.”

“Kuroo-san! You copy that?!” Ukai barks into Daichi’s ear, causing him to flinch.

Kuroo taps the side of his glasses and replies tersely, “I’m on it!” before glancing over at Daichi. “Find Engine Three, I’ll meet you there,” he adds, and Daichi knows they haven’t got much time.

So he swallows up the regret and the apologies that had been bubbling in his throat during the past ten seconds and nods, heading off towards what he vaguely remembers being the portside of the ship. As he races off, his previous conversation with Kuroo replays itself in his mind, and he cringes at his past self.

_ What the hell had happened? _

The image of Kuroo’s wide-eyed, betrayed look sears itself into his head when Daichi had accused the other man of lying to him, and he nearly trips over a stray metal pole sticking out from one of the walls as he keeps running. He’s not sure if that’s any better than the expression of pure terror that had appeared on Kuroo’s face for one long second when Daichi had grabbed his shoulder, and growls at himself for getting distracted when the ship he’s on is about to fall out of the damn sky.

Glancing around, he flags down an agent, asking for directions to Engine Three, and gets directed towards another hallway. In a few minutes he comes across the door to the portside, smoke obscuring most of his vision. The door is heavy, but Daichi merely grunts as he digs his heels in and pushes it open.

The open skies greet him, and he nearly stumbles back in shock.

Almost all of the walls that had housed Engine Three's controls have been blown apart, and he comes across several SHIELD tech agents in full oxygen masks, fire extinguishers strewn around and trying their best to take cover from the sparks and billowing fire above them.

“Get inside!” Daichi yells, motioning wildly, and thankfully they listen as he staggers forward, gripping the railing as he looks around frantically. “Kuroo-san, I’m here!”

Kuroo’s voice crackles through the comms. “Good, let’s see what we’ve got.” Daichi waits for a few moments, and then he hears the thrusters first, before Iron Man appears before him in the air, heading over to the damaged engine. There’s muttering in his ears about the cooling system and rotors, and then Kuroo makes to pull something, before pausing and looking at him. “I need you to get to the engine control panel,” he points to somewhere fifteen feet above Daichi, “And tell me which relays are in overload position.” 

Daichi nods, and Iron Man flies off, presumably towards the engine’s cooling conductors on the other side. 

He takes a quick look around, mumbles, “Here goes nothing,” and launches himself over to the other side of the railing, trying his damned best to not think about the distance between himself and the ground tens of thousands of feet below him. Thankfully, he manages to grab a metal pole to swing himself upward, landing nimbly right in front of something that looks a lot like a control panel.

When he swings it open, he grimaces at the sparks shooting off, as well as the sheer number of buttons and levers blaring red and orange at him.

“What’s it look like in there?” Kuroo asks.

And Daichi, because even though guilt is still swirling in his stomach over his treatment towards the other man, can’t resist from saying, “It seems to run on some form of electricity?”

It gets Kuroo to burst into loud and ugly cackles, and something around his chest loosens just the slightest. “You little shit, I gave you that crash course on electrical engineering just two weeks ago.”

Daichi remembers it clearly—they’d been huddled over a table in a  _ nomiya _ right on the edge of Shimbashi, Kuroo gesticulating with a screwdriver as he took apart an older model of a K-Tab. “Yeah well, what does a relay in an overload position look like, then?”

Kuroo patiently runs him through the steps, and Daichi can hear metal ringing against one another on the other side. Before long, he steps back, surveying the panel once more. “The relays are intact. What’s next?”

“Even if I clear the rotors,” Kuroo huffs, sounding frustrated, “This thing won’t re-engage without a jump. I’m gonna have to get in there and push.”

Daichi blanches, unable to stop himself from looking out towards the sky, even though he knows he can’t see the other man. “If that thing gets up to speed, you’re going to get shredded!”

“Then stay in the control unit and reverse polarity long enough to disengage mag—”

He sighs through gritted teeth, fear for the possibility of Kuroo being chewed up pieces causing him to interrupt, “Japanese please, Kuroo-san.”

Kuroo’s amusement and annoyance is all too obvious in his reply. “There’s a red lever somewhere nearby that’ll slow the rotors down long enough for me to get out. Stand by it and wait for my signal.”

“Right,” Daichi answers, and spots it in the next second—an easy jump across the gaping hole in the middle of the walkway. He makes the leap and glances back up, before counting to ten, breaths getting a little quicker as he takes in the precarious situation they’re currently in.

Daichi manages to get to six when he hears thundering footsteps below him.

SHIELD agents pour out, and he has a moment to ponder if they’re help, but his breath catches when he spots them throwing something at him—

He slaps the grenade away as he makes the jump away from the lever, and uses his momentum to swing from the railing downwards, knocking down two of them before using one of their guns to knock the third out, throwing him clear across the walkway, back into the corridor where they’d come from.

Shots narrowly miss him as he creeps closer, and he leans away before throwing a piece of debris at the shooter to distract them as he makes his way back up.

One of the guns from the first batch of rogue agents has somehow landed on the railing near the lever, and Daichi picks it up, muscle memory leading him as he cocks the weapon and begins shooting.

  
  


***

  
  


Tetsurou’s going to  _ kill _ Ryuu for this.

Assuming Saeko doesn’t get there, first. And yes, he’s completely aware that this is in no way Ryuu’s fault, but Tetsurou hadn’t thought he would be drinking overpriced German whiskey and then trying to get the SHIELD heli-carrier afloat so that three hundred people don’t fucking plummet to their deaths in the span of 12 hours.

The ship in question begins to visibly tilt sideways, and Tetsurou renews his mental cursing at Daishou this time, because Ryuu’s obviously been brainwashed by the bastard and God, he knows something was up with that stupid scepter because as soon as he’d exited the lab after the explosion, the ringing in his brain had faded, his thoughts from that bizarre stand-off with everyone else immediately throwing him into a loop.

Ukai’s voice jolts him out of his musings. “Kuroo-san, we’re losing altitude.”

“Yeah, noticed,” he snipes back, and activates the boosters in his boots to help him push one of the rotors.

Soon enough, he’s picking up speed, and he grits his teeth as the rotors’ speed and his own begins to line up. There are gunshots on the other side of his comms with Sawamura, but he needs to get out of here soon, so he yells, “Cap, I need the lever!”

“Sorry, just—need a minute!” Sawamura replies, clearly preoccupied but—oh shit, fuck, the armour isn’t designed to go this fast yet.

His breath hitches. “Lever! Now!”

The rotors have begun to propel faster than the suit can keep up, and then he’s no longer horizontal, pushed back against the one behind him, and—

“Fuck,” he gasps, just as he accidentally slips into the narrow space between the rotors, suit getting absolutely shredded and JARVIS is putting up warning signals all over the HUD and oh God, is this how he dies?

A vent opens up below just as Tetsurou starts thinking about the inevitability of his suit being crushed, and he falls out, barely getting his thrusters to work as the world spins wildly around him for a moment.

When he rights himself, the gunshots in his comms make themselves clear, and he heads towards Sawamura’s position, catching a glimpse of the lone shooter that had nearly caused him his goddamn life, and slams right into them.

They collide against the wall of the corridor, and Tetsurou flops onto his back, pain immediately making itself known all over his body.

And then:

“Agent Shimizu is critically injured.”

Tetsurou’s already weak heart skips a beat, even as Takeda’s voice joins the fray. “Paramedics are on their way.”

Ukai says, “They’re here.” A beat. “Daishou’s escaped too. Captain, Iron Man. Briefing room, now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> some of my absolute favourite lines from tony were during the lab scene, but again, kuroo isn't tony and daichi isn't steve, so their interactions went pretty different here, and I couldn't use those lines, but!
> 
> the mind stone still messed with their minds, and I plan to address those issues that were brought up in this chapter in upcoming works hahaha *dies of slow burn*
> 
> hope you enjoyed this one! next chapter is gonna be a doozy whew


	5. the battle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daichi taps into his comms. “Kuroo-san? Dr. Azumane’s here. Just like you said.”
> 
> “Nice,” the other man answers, sounding too gleeful for their current situation. “Tell him to suit up, I’m bringing the party to you guys!”
> 
> Just as Kuroo finishes his sentence, Iron Man swoops in from behind a building several blocks away, followed by—
> 
> “I… I don’t see how that’s a party,” Saeko says in disbelief, as the Leviathan behind Iron Man roars in obvious rage, its body swerving like a snake, demolishing everything in its wake as it pursues Kuroo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> action scenes are my weakness I apologise in advance

Kuroo had nearly  _ died. _

The man hadn’t said anything aside from a, “Good save, Cap,” with a smile that looked as hollow as Daichi feels, but he’d heard him, the quiet gasps and the mumbled swears intertwined with clanging metal, like he really was getting cut into pieces and Daichi had almost been too late, dangling from a frail cable himself before he was able to pull down the lever and helped Iron Man escape the rotors.

And as he walks beside Kuroo, footsteps heavy with the knowledge that Daishou had escaped, had gone God knows where, and that Agent Shimizu was currently fighting for her life in the medical bay, Daichi wonders, not for the first time, if he’s ever been worthy of the Captain title. He’d found out that both Bokuto and Azumane were missing as well, the Asgardian having been thrown out of the ship in the very same cage that had held his brother, and Azumane falling out from a jet that was supposed to subdue him when he went berserk as the Hulk.

The briefing room they’re directed to is smaller than either the lab or the bridge where they’d gathered barely over an hour earlier, and emptier too. Director Ukai is facing the doors as they walk in, and there’s more expression in his one eye than Daichi’s ever seen in his entire face since they first met. Kuroo shifts next to him, dressed only in his flight suit before he steps forward, claiming a chair at the table in front of them before fixing his gaze somewhere to his right. There’s a trail of dried blood down the side of his face, mouth set in a grim line.

Daichi follows his lead, various aches in his body already fading, despite the fact that they’d only left Engine Three ten minutes ago.

There’s a tense moment where no one speaks, but Daichi thinks it’s only because Kuroo has too many things to say and no idea what to say first.

Daichi’s not sure what exactly is there to say.

Finally, Ukai takes a step towards them, arms crossed behind his back. “When Shimizu Kiyoko went to pick Dr. Azumane up, she was aware of what it might cost to defeat Daishou.”

He watches them for a moment. “Right now, I don’t even fucking know if she’s going to see the sun set at the end of today,” he says bluntly, and Daichi has to look away. 

“We’re dead in the air up here,” the director continues, voice rough with resignation. “Our communications, location of the cube, Dr. Azumane, Bokuto. Got nothing for you anymore. And maybe, maybe I had it coming.”

Daichi peeks from the corner of his eye as Kuroo looks up at that.

The director sighs, and nods wearily. “Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract.”

The same thing that HYDRA was doing, God damn it, it was supposed to be  _ over, _ the war was supposed to be won—

His thoughts are interrupted by Ukai’s words. “I never put all my chips on that number though, because I was playing something even riskier.”

_ Riskier than using unknown technology to create weapons? _

Kuroo’s voice is raspy when he speaks at last. “You said the Avengers Initiative would be a bust,” he said, and Daichi blinks.  _ An initiative? Avengers?  _ Was this part of what Ukai had hidden from them as well? “What, did you decide to take a bunch of super-powered people with horrible mental issues and a tendency to be self-sacrificial, and see if that works out?”

The director, to his mounting confusion, shrugs in the face of Kuroo’s blatant venom. “I won’t deny any of that. But you forget how exceptional these individuals are—yes, even you, Kuroo-san,” he says patiently, as Kuroo snorts. Ukai turns to Daichi, and he thinks there’s a smile playing on the older man’s grim mouth. “There was an idea to bring a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could.”

His gaze shifts to include Kuroo. “Shimizu went up against Daishou and just about got stabbed in the heart believing in that idea. In  _ heroes _ .”

Daichi glances up when he hears the thud of Kuroo’s chair falling backwards, before the door slams behind him.

Ukai isn’t looking at him, and suddenly Daichi can see the shadows in his face as he exhales heavily. “Well. It’s an old-fashioned notion.”

He knows all too well what that feels like, at least.

  
  


***

_ Where are you? _

_ 9.28AM _

_ Sent our coordinates.  _

_ 9.28AM _

Tetsurou robotically inputs the location Saeko had sent with JARVIS on his phone, and makes his way to her, mind replaying everything he knows right now about SHIELD, Ukai, Daishou and Sawamura. There’s almost a certainty that they would have to face Daishou, and soon, but Tetsurou just needs to get his head on straight, thoughts too jumbled and emotions still a mess from this morning’s clusterfuck of events.

Usually, Kenma or Yaku would be the ones he’d go to, but before today, there was one other person he would have shortlisted as well.

He’s hoping she’s not off the list just yet. (Hope has always been the one thing he’s had the least experience with, though.)

JARVIS leads him down several hallways before he realises they’ve entered the medical bay, and his footsteps slow, hesitant, even though he knows there’s no way he can catch a glimpse of her.

She would still be on an operating table right now, and Tetsurou resists praying to deities he doesn’t believe in for her fate, because she doesn’t deserve that.

Shimizu’s strong enough to fight on her own two feet.

The red dot on his phone brings him to a room at the end of the corridor, and he doesn’t bother knocking before he enters.

At a glance, one would have thought Ryuunosuke and Saeko were twins, but Tetsurou knows better, despite the identical light brown eyes and the way they held themselves with quiet strength and deadly power.

Saeko’s five years older, which means the shadows in her eyes are just a little darker than her brother’s.

When he walks into the room, Ryuu is sitting up on a cot, shirtless and nursing a bandage around his head. There’s a giant red mark on his shoulder, courtesy of the fight he’d had with Saeko while he was still under Daishou’s control, and Tetsurou knows from experience that it’ll bloom into a tremendous bruise. It’s stupid how quickly relief washes over him when he notes the recognition in Ryuu’s face, as his eyes land on Tetsurou.

“Tetsu?” he asks, confused. “Did SHIELD finally bring in Iron Man on payroll?”

Saeko looks up at Tetsurou. “More like Iron Man invited himself,” she quips, but her smile is easy. “Heard about what happened out there with the engine. You alright, kid?”

_ Oh. _ She only calls him that when she feels bad, which means Tetsurou was probably somewhat right about how much she’d hidden from him. He watches her, the way she favours her left leg even as she’s leaning up against the wall next to her brother. “Nothing a drink can’t fix,” he replies magnanimously, even though he thinks his ribs are definitely bruised, and the gash on his forehead that he’d gotten during the explosion is throbbing now that the adrenaline has all but disappeared. “Ryuu back to his obnoxious self?”

That gets a laugh from Saeko, as Ryuu growls at him, the effect completely ruined by the fact that he’s pouting up at Tetsurou. “Excuse you, look who’s talking, you billionaire asshole.”

“Yeah, he’s back,” his sister replies, voice soft with gratitude. It makes Ryuu reach over to bump his fist against her right knee, and Tetsurou swallows at the easy sibling affection, suddenly overcome by a need to bother Kenma or tease Yaku.

He grins instead. “You guys are adorable.”

Ryuu flips him for that, but his shoulders slump, tension lessening from whatever Daishou must have done to him. “So. Time to address the fucking elephant in the room, then. What are we going to do about Daishou?”

Saeko flicks her gaze at Tetsurou. “We have to stop him.”

And she’s right, but, “You guys are spies, not soldiers,” he points out, watching them carefully. “If we face the guy you know it’s going to be war.”

Saeko looks away at that, but Tetsurou knows from experience that there’s no budging her stance—

None of them had been preparing for a war when the mission landed in their laps two days ago, though.

Ryuu glances up at Saeko, his expression growing suspicious as the quiet stretches between them. “Nee-san. You never said what Daishou did to you.” And then he turns to Tetsurou. “You too. Don’t think I didn’t notice whatever the hell is happening between you two right now.”

Damn it. Tetsurou opens his mouth, but Saeko says, “Same shit that happened to you, happened to us as well, but on a smaller scale. And when Daishou escaped, he,” she pauses, and doggedly gets out, “Kiyoko tried to stop him.”

“Kiyoko-san? What, is she—”

“She’s in the OR,” Tetsurou interrupts, before Ryuu can get a panic attack; he knows how close the Tanaka siblings are with the agent; she’d been the only one they’d agreed on being their handler whenever they had to do missions together, and for all of Ryuu’s attempts at flirting with her, he’d always left her alone if she needed him to.

Sometimes he forgets that SHIELD isn’t just made up of nameless, faceless people designed to kill.

There’s nothing else he can say about Shimizu to remove the stricken look on Ryuu’s face, so Tetsurou doesn’t try. Instead, he glances over at Saeko, who’s looking at her phone, and adds, “Your sister was just doing her job and I kind of messed that up, as I do every other Thursday afternoon.”

Saeko doesn’t say anything to that, but she shrugs before waving her phone in the air. “Someone’s looking for you.”

When Tetsurou only raises his brow, she clarifies, “Cap’s somewhere in the hallway outside.”

“Cap? Like, Captain Sawamura? He’s here?” Ryuu splutters. “Shit, how badly did I fuck up?”

And Tetsurou wishes he could tell Ryuu that the whole morning has been a series of one fuck up after another, but he’s not qualified to reassure a spy agent of his goodness when Tetsurou himself still hasn’t figured out what he wants to say to Sawamura right now. An apology, perhaps, snuck in between genuine curiosity about how little the Captain probably trusts him right now, and maybe a break from their regular… Meetings, once all of this has blown over.

If they live to see it blow over, at least.

Instead, he nods, and steps outside as he hears Saeko try her best not to berate her brother for jumping to “that stupid conclusion, you idiot,” while the younger Tanaka retorts with, “Oi, I’m still injured here!”

It doesn’t take more than a couple of moments to find Sawamura, and Tetsurou feels himself falter when he realises they’re in the corridor just outside of the OR. The Captain is staring at the closed doors, and even from this distance, he can see the way Sawamura stands like he’s ready to walk into another fight, face looking like thunder, jaw clenched and hands formed into fists.

Tetsurou  _ really _ doesn’t want another fight.

He takes care to make sure his footsteps are loud enough to not startle the other man, but he knows Sawamura probably heard him when he left the Tanakas’ room anyway, with his enhanced hearing shit. Still, he walks slowly, until he comes to a stop a few feet away.

“Captain,” he starts. He’s not sure how to end that sentence, though.

Fortunately, Sawamura seems to have found his words, after staying silent the entire time they’d been with Ukai earlier. “I’d just met her for the first time a couple of hours ago,” he says softly. “She—she could have waited for back-up.”

“She was doing her job,” Tetsurou reminds quietly, and the Captain looks at him, expression heartbreakingly open in its devastation. It’s one of the things Tetsurou had first noticed about the guy when they began spending more time together; how easily Sawamura wears his emotions and thoughts on his face, like he never had anything to hide. 

(He wonders if his father ever had anything to say about that, considering how much he’d yelled at Tetsurou for the same damn thing.)

“Sometimes, the only way out is through,” he adds, and thoughts of metal and sand and Nekomata’s dying gaze pierce his thoughts.

“I didn’t go into the ice just to have the next generations go to war again,” the Captain replies, and Tetsurou can’t help but wince at the fact that for a period of time in his life, he was a big benefactor of war and death. “And SHIELD, I… I don’t get it. Have we just been grooming soldiers in every part of our government now?”

Something in Tetsurou bristles at that. “We are  _ not _ soldiers,” he throws out, his rebuttal fierce and sharp. “I don’t intend to march to Ukai’s signal, Captain.”

“Neither do I, Kuroo-san!” Sawamura answers hotly as he turns around to face Tetsurou, and there’s determination, and something too noble for Tetsurou to name in his features. “He’s got the same blood on his hands as Daishou does. But right now we need to figure out how to stop him. Daishou needs a power source, maybe if we can put together a list…”

And then something clicks into place as Sawamura trails off.

Tetsurou’s gaze is fixed on the doors to the OR, mind working almost too fast for his mouth when he whispers, “He made it personal.”

Sawamura’s gaze snaps towards the doors as well. “Shimizu. Azumane. Both Agents Tanaka?”

Tetsurou nods, and looks at him. “Bokuto’s here because of Daishou, but from what we know, the guy loves Earth. And there’s you, Japan’s golden boy and me, how do I fit in this equation? What would I be able to give him? And it’s also clear he’s hitting at us to tear us apart, take us out to win,” he says, starting to pace the corridor. “That’s what he wants. He wants to beat us and he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience.”

“Yeah, we both saw him in Vladivostok.”

“But that’s just a preview,” Tetsurou protests, and the answer’s right there on the tip of his tongue, he just needs… “This is opening night, Cap. Daishou, he… That act?  _ So _ diva-like. He’d want flowers, parades, he wants a monument built in the skies with his name plastered—”

Oh,  _ hell _ no.

“Son of a bitch!”

  
  


***

  
  


Daichi doesn’t know how in the hell SHIELD managed to get two Tanakas in their ranks, but Tanaka Ryuunosuke, codenamed Hawkeye and mind freshly regained from his brainwashing session with Daishou, looks at him with a mixture of awe and mischief that Daichi isn’t totally troubled by, grin wide as he greets him with a, “You don’t look too bad for a 70-year-old man, Captain.”

The shirtless look might take some getting used to, though.

Tanaka—the sister, and damn, Daichi’s going to have to refer to them with their first names now—nods at him when he enters the room Kuroo had directed him to. “What’s up, Cap?”

“We gotta go,” Daichi answers, urgent and firm, and Ta—Ryuunosuke blinks at him.

“Where are we going?”

Kuroo’s words ring in his ear, along with some choice swear words by the man himself. He replies succinctly, “Stopping Daishou,” and the same look of purpose and anger falls upon both the siblings. To Ryuunosuke, he asks, “You got a suit?”

“Yeah.”

“Then suit up.”

They find Hawkeye’s uniform in the utility room, near where the shield had been stored as well. As Daichi straps on the shield, the Tanaka siblings gathering their own weapons beside him, he thinks of Director Ukai’s words, and while he would not agree with most of what the other man had said, he can’t deny one thing.

Both Tanakas, Kuroo—hell, Azumane and Bokuto too, they were absolutely remarkable people in their own ways, and if this was the last mission Daichi would participate in, then he would be all the more prouder for it.

But perhaps this time, it might be worth it to see the other side, instead of going down with the ship.

Kuroo’s voice jolts him out of his thoughts, his comms piece coming to life once more. “Hey guys, how long does it take you to pretty yourselves up? I’m getting bored waiting.”

“You can stand to learn a little patience, Tetsu,” Saeko replies, and even Daichi hears the smirk in her voice.

“We’re heading towards the quintjet hangar now,” Daichi cuts in before Kuroo can retort, and nods at Ryuunosuke to lead the way, who’s gotten rid of the bandage around his head. They’re stopped by a young pilot as they’re about to board one of the jets, who doesn’t look any older than Daichi’s current age, but he’s pale even as he holds his hands up, standing guard in front of the aircraft.

“You aren’t authorized to be here—”

And Daichi just sends him a weary glance, clapping a hand on his shoulder as he walks past and into the aircraft. “ _ Shounen _ ,” he sighs, thinking of the literal decades between them, “Just don’t.”

He pretends not to hear the snickers, but when he looks back, Ryuunosuke flashes him a sharp grin and thumbs up. Kuroo cackles in his ear, and Saeko murmurs, “You probably made that kid’s day,” and something in him lifts a little.

Saeko takes the co-pilot seat, leaving her brother to slide into the main pilot’s position and the sick feeling in his stomach that had been present when he first boarded the jet yesterday appears again, but he pushes it down, gripping Ryuunosuke’s seat. “Set your coordinates for Kuroo Tower,” he informs, before turning his attention to Kuroo. “Taking off in 20 seconds.”

“Finally,” Kuroo replies with a groan, and the hangar doors open up, revealing the skies before them. “I’ve got JARVIS tracking Bokuto, and looks like the guy’s heading to Tokyo as well—whatever led him to Daishou when we were on the jet is probably doing its work here too.”

Saeko glances at him. “That can’t be good.” Her voice is light, but Daichi catches her flexing her knuckles, fists wrapped with some kind of weapon as she leans back, in preparation for take off. 

Her brother, on the other hand, predictably glowers, even as he maneuvers the jet, the engines almost silent as it powers up. “Five seconds,” he announces, and Daichi shifts to grab a hold of the handle behind Saeko’s seat. As the jet begins its take off, he keeps his gaze forward, stubbornness keeping him on his feet, despite the fear that clutches him.

He doesn’t relax his grip until they’re up in the air, Iron Man making his appearance in front of them for a few moments, the damaged suit causing Daichi to swallow down his guilt, before it swerves to the side. “How long will it take us to reach the city?”

“Two hours, and that’s if that alien bastard doesn’t have any plans of messing with us before that,” Ryuunosuke answers.

“I can cut that by 30 minutes,” Kuroo says, and Daichi  _ really _ doesn’t like the idea of the guy facing Daishou alone. “If I’m right about where he’s going to be, which I most likely am, then I want to face him on my own home turf,” he adds firmly, as if he heard Daichi’s thoughts.

“We’ll meet you there, then,” Daichi says at last, an exasperated grin spreading across his face as the red and gold armour appears again, somewhere to the right of the jet as it does a couple of loops. “Stay sharp, Iron Man.”

Kuroo laughs, braying and obnoxious and stupidly comforting without Daichi even knowing how that came to be.

“Knives would  _ run _ from me, Cap.”

  
  


***

  
  


The journey to Tokyo, to his home and the home of nine million others, goes by too slow for Tetsurou’s taste, even with JARVIS gently reminding him that there was no way they could go faster with the extensive damage the suit had taken.

If he makes through today alive, he’s recalibrating the boot thrusters on the armour first thing.

Maybe a drink before that, though.

And a phone call with Kenma, damn it, he’s so going to have to buy  _ all _ of the games at Akihabara at this point just to get back in his CEO’s good graces.

Tetsurou’s not sure how he passes air traffic control without incident as he enters Japanese airspace, but he has a feeling that SHIELD might have to do something with it, and resolves to at least try and not punch Ukai when he sees the guy next. Ryuunosuke could probably be persuaded to help him attempt to hide the director’s smokes instead, and the silly thought manages to keep him relatively calm as the sight of Mount Fuji looms in the distance.

“ETA to the tower?”

“Twenty minutes, sir.”

Tetsurou grins, all too aware of how fast his pulse is right now. “You know what to do when we get there, then.”

“I’ll do my best to keep you alive, sir, despite your attempts to thwart my efforts.”

“Sure, that too, J.”

By the time he arrives at the tower, his thrusters have malfunctioned too many times, but he’s still able to hover in mid-air as he takes in the huge CMS device propped up on the roof of his tower, the Tesseract cradled in the middle. A man with black wavy hair stands right beside it, mask over the lower half of his face as he works on a laptop connected to the device.

“Sir,” JARVIS says, sounding a little worried, “I took off the arc reactor, but the device is already self-sustained.”

Not great news, but expected. Tetsurou turns his attention towards the other man below. “Shut it down, Dr. Sakusa.”

When Dr. Sakusa looks up at him, his eyes are a strange light blue, and he’s got his hands in his pockets. “It’s too late,” the doctor rumbles. “It can’t stop now. He wants to show us something, Kuroo Tetsurou! A new universe.”

“This one’s shitty enough for me,” Tetsurou quips, and aims his hands towards the device, firing a quick blast at it.

He hadn’t anticipated the energy rebound, though.

When he gets his feet under him again, head spinning from being knocked over by the massive rebound, he takes a glance at the device, and it’s…  _ Unharmed. _

“The barrier is pure energy. It’s unbreachable,” JARVIS helpfully informs him.

Tetsurou huffs. “Yeah, got that.” He looks around, and resists the urge to grind his teeth when he sees Daishou leering up at him on the balcony. “Plan B, then.”

“Sir, the Mark VII is not ready for deployment,” JARVIS argues, and Tetsurou rolls his eyes.

“Skip the spinning rims, we’re on the clock,” he replies sharply. His AI doesn’t have a retort, and he drops onto the landing bay heavily, the machinery helping to take his suit apart piece by piece. All the while, he keeps his eyes on Daishou as the Asgardian makes his way into Tetsurou’s home from the other side of the balcony. 

When Tetsurou steps into the living room, Daishou swaggers in as well, clad in his dark green and black armour, hair swooped back and scepter in hand. His eyes are still human-looking, but Tetsurou isn’t sure how long that’s going to hold.

“Please tell me you’re going to appeal to my humanity,” Daishou greets with a grin, a slight hiss to his words. The bastard doesn’t look remotely ruffled at all.

Tetsurou raises a brow, and casually makes his way down to the bar, mentally calculating the time he’s got before things eventually turn to shit. “Actually, I’m planning to threaten you.”

Daishou shakes his head, and strides forward. “Shoulda left your armour on for that.” There’s sarcasm in his tone, and Tetsurou can admit that against the Asgardian? His current suit wouldn’t stand a chance.

“Yeah, it's seen a bit of mileage. You’ve got the blue stick of destiny, after all,” Tetsurou shrugs, and walks behind the bar, where the last few bottles he’d been sipping from are still on the counter. “Would you like a drink?”

“Stalling me won’t change anything.”

“Threatening!” Tetsurou argues with a mock frown, turning around to pour a glass for himself, eyes quickly searching the area. “No drink, you sure? I’m having one.”

When he turns back, Daishou’s a lot closer than he’s comfortable with, but Tetsurou’s had a lifetime of masking his emotions behind a blank, mildly curious expression. As long as Daishou doesn’t look at his eyes too closely, he’s good.

“The Chitauri are coming,” Daishou tells him, looking out of the living room’s floor-to-ceiling glass walls. “Nothing’s changin’ that. What’s going to stop me?”

“The Avengers,” Tetsurou says calmly. That causes Daishou to look at him, visibly confused. “It’s what we call ourselves,” he continues, hamming up his sheepishness at the name as he takes a sip of whiskey. “Sort of like a team. ‘Earth’s Mightiest Heroes’ type of thing.”

The Asgardian snorts. “Yeah, I’ve met them.”

And damn, it rankles to hear the derision, the kernel of truth in Daishou’s condescending words, but Tetsurou smiles viciously anyway. “I know, takes us a while to get any traction, I’ll give you that.”

“But,” he adds, cocking his head to the side in thought, “Let’s do a head count here. Your brother, the demi-god,” and Daishou turns away with a hiss, eyes narrowed. Tetsurou continues to speak as he quietly snaps on two thin colantotte bracelets, one on each wrist. “A super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend; a timid man with  _ breath-taking _ anger issues; a couple of master assassins and you, my man,” he points at the Asgardian with his glass, “You’ve managed to piss off every single one of them.”

Daishou winks, all traces of his frustration at the mention of Bokuto gone. “That was the plan.”

“Not a great plan,” Tetsurou says quietly, taking his glass along as he moves away from the bar. “When they come, and they will, they’ll come for you.”

“I have an army.”

“We have a Hulk,” Tetsurou counters, and the rage that has been simmering in his chest from the last few hours begins to build once more, fanned by the very image of this bastard gloating in Tetsurou’s own home and sanctuary, because how fucking  _ dare _ this tourist even  _ think _ about taking and destroying the  _ one place in the universe _ that has the precious few souls he gives a damn about.

He walks over to Daishou, and this time, he hopes the Asgardian can read every single emotion in his face right now, glad for the few inches he has over the other as he straightens up to his full height. “You’re missing the point,” he growls, grip hardening around his glass. “There’s no throne,  _ no version  _ of this where you come out on top.” 

“Maybe your army comes and maybe it’s too much for us, but it’s all on you,” he continues, “Because if we can’t protect the Earth?” Tetsurou smirks, sharp and lethal, the one he uses to destroy bigger and more powerful men than the Asgardian before him, and Daishou flinches just the slightest bit. “You can be  _ damned well _ sure we’ll avenge it.”

When he comes to a stop, swallowing a gulp of his drink, there’s barely three feet of distance between them.

Daishou watches him, and raises the scepter before Tetsurou can even blink.

“How’re your little friends gonna have time for me, when they’re so busy fighting you?” He murmurs, and taps Tetsurou’s chest with the scepter.

_ Ping! _

_ Oh. _ Oh, damn. Well, at least the arc reactor is good for something, besides keeping him alive.

Daishou frowns, and tries again, only to have the tip of the scepter make the  _ ping! _ noise once more. “It should work.”

Yeah, Tetsurou isn’t going to leave that joke hanging.

“Well, performance issues, you know? Not uncommon—” He grins, but Daishou bellows in his face and in the next moment, there’s a hand around his throat and he’s flung across the room.

Fucking hell, he’s getting really tired of this.

“JARVIS, anytime now,” he gets out as he stumbles to his feet, before Daishou’s grabbing him by the throat again, clawed fingers digging into his jaw painfully.

The Asgardian’s eyes have shifted, and from this distance, Tetsurou can’t quite hide the shiver of fear that overcomes him as Daishou brings his face close. “You’re all going to fall before me,” he snarls vehemently.

“Deploy!” Tetsurou squeaks, and then Daishou throws him through his own damn window.

The glass shatters beneath his back as he’s being hurtled through the air, wind whipping his face as he begins to freefall down the side of the tower, inadvertently doing a couple of loops before he rights himself. He doesn’t get more than a couple of seconds to think about peeing his pants as the ground looms closer and closer before the familiar whirring noise appears behind him, bracelets blinking rapidly in red.

And then metal begins to encase his limbs, terror from the first few moments of falling morphing itself into a shock of adrenaline as the helmet wraps over his head, thrusters finally engaged.

_ 5, 4, 3— _

“Just in time!” Tetsurou whoops, an exhilarated laugh escaping him as he flips himself right side up with the force of his palm thrusters two seconds before he was about to become a mound of flesh and bones on the pavement, the crowd underneath immediately scattering away while he blasts his way back up.

When he comes face to face with Daishou again, the Asgardian stares, rage seemingly morphing his face into looking more snake-like than ever.

“And there’s one other person you pissed off!” Tetsurou says, shark-like and fierce.  _ “Me.” _

Daishou doesn’t even get a chance to raise his scepter, because Tetsurou immediately shoots a blast that sends the other guy flat on his ass with a loud grunt.

Just as he’s about to make sure Daishou stays down, a deafening  _ bang _ catches his attention, and when he looks upward, the CMS device he’d tried to unsuccessfully shut down earlier had somehow started up, shooting some sort of laser beam energy towards the sky.

The beam ends at a point, and Tetsurou can only watch in transfixed horror as a literal black hole starts opening up above them, and then something is coming out of it, wait, some  _ things _ , many things, what did Daishou— _ ah. _

“Right. Army.”

  
  


***

  
  


“Tetsu, we’re on your three, heading north east,” Saeko announces into the comms as soon as they enter Chuo Ward, the Ginza district merely a few minutes’ flight away.

There’s a huff in his ear as Kuroo replies, “What, did you guys stop for drive-through or something? I’ve got a bunch of mad-looking alien soldier assholes behind me—Chitauri, Daishou called them. Swing up Hibiya, I’ll lay ‘em out for you.”

Daichi inhales as the jet makes a sharp turn, but soon enough the sight in front of him is enough to make him forget about his aversion to aircraft as Iron Man sweeps into view, more than a dozen of what can only be the Chitauri aliens tailing the man.

Saeko deftly flicks some switches, grabbing hold of the controls and the jet trembles slightly as she fires several rounds of the mounted machine gun at the horde, Ryuunosuke flying through the smoke from the explosions. They continue the pattern as they make their way towards Kuroo Tower, where Kuroo had said Daishou would be.

There’s no mistaking the dark green and black armour, golden horns glinting, and fighting him is Bokuto, their weapons clashing against each other in the gleaming sunlight, movements almost too fast for Daichi’s eyes to follow.

Ryuu swerves to the side of the tower, glancing back at his sister. “Yeah?”

Saeko grins, firing up the mini gun this time. “See ‘em.” There’s a few seconds where Daichi thinks the rounds will hit their mark, but everything around him suddenly shakes violently as they immediately begin losing altitude, and he’s instantly aware that Daishou had just hit their jet.

The aircraft sways heavily to the side as he instinctively grabs onto the handles above him, can only watch helplessly as Ryuunosuke maneuvers with one wing down.

“Hang tight!” The younger Tanaka yells, and then Daichi’s swaying to one side, the aircraft beginning to spin as they go down, God, he really, _really_ _hates planes—_

Somehow, they don’t slam into any of the skyscrapers around them, crashing instead onto the street, thankfully empty of bystanders as they come to an abrupt stop.

The ramp opens up and Daichi wastes no time as he heads out on semi-shaky legs, the SHIELD agents right behind him—

And the city is an absolute war zone.

Buildings are ablaze as screams and wails pierce the air; there’s chaos everywhere he looks but there’s no time to even take anything in, because Tokyo is in shambles, and right now, they need to fight and defend it against the unknown, so he turns towards the siblings.

“We gotta get back up there!” He tells them, and they begin making their way through the rubble, but then it’s as if the entire city comes to a sudden stop, noise petering out when a massive shadow appears above them.

The hole in the sky has widened considerably since they’d laid eyes on it, the vastness of space threatening to choke and swallow them whole, and out of it comes a monstrosity, a leviathan too big to even comprehend, as hundreds of Chitauri soldiers accompany it.

Daichi doesn’t know how long they stand still, terror and doubt rooting them to the spot, as the thing approaches—mounted upon it are more Chitauri soldiers, and they jump off onto the surrounding buildings when they get close enough, their inhuman shrieks grating and hideous.

Somehow, he finally manages to croak out, “Kuroo-san. Are you seeing this?”

“I’m seeing, still working on believing,” Kuroo answers. “Where’s Azumane? Has he shown up yet?”

“Azumane?”

But Kuroo only gives him a glib, “Just keep me posted,” before the line goes quiet, and Daichi looks over at the Tanakas, their respective weapons in hand as they prepare to move out. Daichi nods, and they make their way through the city, taking cover behind overturned taxi cabs, Tokyo continuing to fall to pieces around them. They’ve just crossed the halfway point of a bridge when a series of blasts from above nearly catch them unawares, and Daichi looks up to see Daishou on the back of one of the Chitauri chariots, whizzing past them.

Daishou starts to rain several more hits down the street, causing the vehicles that had been abandoned in the wake of the alien invasion to explode in a flurry of smoke and fire, as more screams resound in the air. Some of the blasts make contact with the nearby buildings as well, and Daichi knows they need to make their way there, see if there’s anything to be done.

“They’re really pushing it down there,” he murmurs worriedly, sneaking another glance as he spots several police cars in the thick of everything, but something catches his attention at the corner of his eye, and he ducks, just as a blast hits the taxi cab’s window above him.

When he turns around, several Chitauri soldiers have started to encircle them, grotesque-looking features encapsulated in armour as they snarl and growl at the three of them.

Saeko stands up, and shoots a Chitauri with a couple of quick rounds of her gun, knocking it back on its ass, before crouching back down to grin at Daichi, her bottom lip split and bleeding. “They need to get the evacuation going there. We got this. Go!”

Daichi looks between her and Ryuunosuke, and he knows their answer, but he needs to be sure—

He can’t abandon another teammate, not again—

“You think you guys can hold them off?”

Ryuunosuke stares at him. “Captain,” he begins, grinning widely, and pulls a trigger on his bow, causing an arrow to pop up. “It would be my  _ genuine _ pleasure.” In the span of three seconds, he stands up to shoot the arrow into one of the creatures, right before it emits several laser blasts that bring down its friends nearby.

It gives Daichi enough time to swing around the taxi cabs and take a leap off of the bridge, landing on the roof of a bus, laser blasts right behind him as he continues sprinting, jumping off on vehicle after overturned vehicle before his feet hit the debris-filled street. 

He spots the cluster of police cars in the distance, firing at the flying chariots—but they don’t seem to even make a dent in any of the Chitauri, so he speeds up, ducking from a number of errant blasts before he catches their attention as he jumps onto one of their cars.

The two nearest policemen raise their guns at him, startled, and Daichi keeps his shield down just in case as he takes a quick look around at the chaos, frightened civilians still trapped nearby. “I need guys in these buildings,” he starts, aware that he has no business ordering them, but, well.

Somebody has to, even if he doesn’t feel all that competent about it.

“There are people inside that can run into the line of fire,” he continues in a rush. “Take them through the basement or through the subway, keep them off the streets. I need a perimeter as far back as the Hattori Clock Tower.”

The older of the two glares at him, gun still raised. “Why the hell should I take orders from you?”

Before Daichi can even apologise for being presumptuous, several explosions ring behind him, and he turns around just in time to block an energy blast with his shield, redirecting it towards one of the chariots whizzing above. But that seems to have angered the rest of the Chitauri around them, because suddenly he’s fighting off one after another, using the shield to both defend and throw them off, instinct the only thing driving him right now.

The last fighter gets flung back by the blast of his own weapon, its piercing shriek causing him to wince as he turns to look back at the police officers, eyes quickly roving all over them to make sure they’re unharmed. “You guys alright?”

They stare at him for a beat. Then the one that had spoken to him nods, and immediately relays Daichi’s instructions into his walkie-talkie as he turns away. Daichi sighs in relief before circling back, hoping against hope that the Tanakas were holding up well enough on their own.

When he finds his way back onto the bridge, Saeko’s thighs are wrapped around a Chitauri soldier in a headlock, its weapon in her hands, and Ryuunosuke yelling unintelligibly as he stabs three of them at once with his arrows, the creatures shuddering as the visible electric pulses fry their insides, before they drop dead.

Suddenly, several blinding lightning strikes rain down on the Chitauri horde, causing them to be blasted back in a massive shockwave that shakes the bridge underneath their feet. The lightning’s connected to a figure in the sky, and Daichi watches with a healthy amount of awe as Bokuto Koutarou slams down onto the bridge, white and blue bolts wrapped around him.

“Hey hey hey!” the Asgardian greets with a fierce grin, thrusting his hammer in the air, bringing even more lightning down onto the rest of the nearby aliens.

“You’d think I’ve seen everything after Budapest,” Ryuunosuke mutters, but he’s beaming, shaking his head in fascination.

Daichi approaches Bokuto as the lightning bolts around him disappear, glancing back in the direction of Kuroo Tower. “Good to see you. What’s happening up there?”

At that, Bokuto seems to wilt, golden eyes filled with frustration. “We can’t break through the stuff around the cube, it’s pretty much impenetrable.”

Kuroo comes in on their comms then, sounding out of breath. “Bokuto’s right, we gotta deal with these guys first.”

Saeko shifts next to him, twirling a Chitauri weapon she’d apprehended during the fight as she cocks out her hip, glancing around them. “How do we do this, then?”

The others turn to look at Daichi, and his throat is too thick to get any words out, palms sweaty as he realises that they’re waiting on his call; but he doesn’t get to say anything, because an unlikely sight appears right around the corner of a half-torn car, and it takes him two seconds to realise he’s not looking at an illusion.

“So,” Azumane greets them sheepishly as he steps off a motorbike that looks a little too small for him, clothes disheveled and hair in disarray. “This all seems horrible.”

Saeko snorts. “I’ve seen worse.”

Azumane flushes, rubbing the back of his neck as his shoulders tense, and Daichi remembers what had gone down between them merely a couple of hours ago. “Sorry, I—I really didn’t mean to.”

“Nah,” Saeko replies, leaning on the Chitauri weapon as she winks. “We could use a little worse.”

Daichi watches them, and taps into his comms when he remembers Kuroo’s words. “Kuroo-san? Dr. Azumane’s here. Just like you said.”

“Nice,” the other man answers, sounding too gleeful for their current situation. “Tell him to suit up, I’m bringing the party to you guys!”

Just as Kuroo finishes his sentence, Iron Man swoops in from behind a building several blocks away, followed by—

“I… I don’t see how that’s a party,” Saeko says in disbelief, as the Leviathan behind Iron Man roars in obvious rage, its body swerving like a snake, demolishing everything in its wake as it pursues Kuroo.

And then Azumane starts walking towards them, as Iron Man leads the monstrosity to swoop down low over the street.

“Dr. Azumane, now might be a really good time for you to get angry,” Daichi tells him, grip tightening on his shield as the Leviathan draws near. 

But the doctor smiles, genial and calm.

“Well, that’s my secret, Cap,” he says softly, just as green lines begin to manifest all over the exposed parts of his body. “I’m always angry.”

When Azumane turns around again, his body, now bright green all over, swells up, stretching and hardening, the flimsy shirt he’d had on ripped off in an instant as he charges right for the Leviathan. Iron Man immediately makes a quick jerk upwards just as the Hulk bellows, sending a punch right to the creature’s nose that causes it to flip over in a 180 move that quite literally takes Daichi’s breath away.

“Hold on!” Kuroo yells above them as he deploys several rockets at the Leviathan that’s begun to fall over on their side, and Daichi raises his shield in defense, Ryuunosuke taking cover with him while Saeko uses the torn off door of a car to protect herself against the raining pieces of literal alien meat on fire.

All around them, the remaining Chitauri soldiers wail and screech in horror, and when Daichi gets back to his feet, Iron Man’s joining them on the ground, helping Saeko up.

But they barely get a moment’s breather, because out of the portal, two, three,  _ more _ Chitauri Leviathans fly out, accompanied by countless more soldiers, promising certain death and destruction.

It takes everything in Daichi to not crumble at the devastating sight.

“Uh, guys?” Ryuunosuke squeaks, gazing up at the sky.

Kuroo turns to Daichi, nodding at him. “Call it, Captain.”

Just like five minutes ago, it takes almost a second too long to get anything out, but as everyone looks at him, Daichi nods back, straightening his shoulders as he lays out their plan. “Alright, listen up. Until we can close that portal up there, we’re gonna use containment,” he says, injecting more confidence and certainty in his voice than he currently feels right now. “Hawkeye, I want you on that roof,” he gestures at one of the few buildings that haven’t been completely destroyed. “Eyes on everything, call out patterns and strays.”

“Kuroo-san, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash,” Daichi continues firmly.

Kuroo flashes him a thumbs up, and Ryuunosuke walks over to him. “Wanna give me a lift?”

“Better clench up, Robin Hood,” he replies cheerfully, and they’re both off.

Daichi turns to the rest of them. “Bokuto, you gotta try and bottleneck that portal, slow them down. You’ve got the lightning, so light the bastards up,” he says, and Bokuto beams back at him before he’s flying away as well.

Saeko watches him with a small smile as she waits for his words. “We stay here on the ground, keep the fighting here. And Hulk?”

At the mention of his name, the Hulk snaps his head around, hair flying in the wind as he looks at Daichi.

Daichi smiles brightly at him.  _ “Smash.” _

  
  


***

  
  


“Tetsurou, you’ve got a lot of strays sniffing your tail!”

“Just try and keep them off the streets,” Tetsurou mutters distractedly, JARVIS ensuring that he swerves around enough to keep their aims off-balance.

Ryuu snorts. “Well, they can’t bank worth a damn, so find a tight corner.”

Tetsurou ponders the suggestion, and smiles. “I will roger that.” He takes a sharp turn, circling back to where Ryuu is perched, making sure to take routes that would cause them to have to either brake or crash right into the buildings, against tight, secluded tunnels, or right into each other. A number of them go down thanks to Ryuu’s arrows, and he blasts the rest of them until there’s none left.

“Nice call, Ryuu,” he says. “What else have you got?”

“Well, Bokuto’s taking on a whole squadron down at  Itchōme Eki.”

Tetsurou lets out a mock scandalised gasp. “And he didn’t invite me?”

That gets Ryuu to laugh, as he replies, “Well, you’re the king of inviting yourself,” and then adds a little more seriously, “Watch after yourself, okay? Don’t die on your first SHIELD mission, your highness.”

“Don’t really have plans to,” he promises, and shoots off towards Bokuto’s location. He’s halfway there when JARVIS signals on his HUD that Saeko’s… In mid-air? Behind him? What the—

Instantly, he turns on his back and launches several rockets at the two chariots giving Saeko trouble, staying long enough to make sure she’s got the last soldier handled. And then his AI pings him Sawamura’s location when he realises the Captain’s holding up on his own back at the bridge.

“Coming through!” Tetsurou yells, blasting several Chitauri soldiers back as he dives down, knocking them back with his suit as well before he lands on his feet. “Shield up, Cap!” and Sawamura immediately raises it, holding it steady as Tetsurou shoots two large energy blasts at it, causing them to be refracted towards the remaining soldiers.

“Thanks!” the Captain says, before punching the lights out of a straggler, and Tetsurou gives him a salute before he flies off again, shooting at every single one of the Chitauri he sees, but he knows that they can’t keep this up for much longer.

He glances back up at the portal, and shudders at the empty vastness that he can see, before shaking his head.

“Come on, Tetsurou, get back in the game,” he mutters.

  
  


***

  
  


_ The bank, he needs to—God, there are so many civilians, he needs to get them to safety— _

“Everyone, clear out!” Daichi shouts at the people who had been trapped in the bank, and then there are arms around his neck, steadily squeezing his throat as he pants for breath. Out of the corner of his eye he sees a flash of blue and uses the hold around him to flip back around, and then spins the Chitauri soldier who’d just pinned him a second ago in front of him to block the next blast.

He gets just enough time to find his shield and lift it up before the other Chitauri lobs the bomb at him, and then it  _ explodes, _ causing him to be flung back through the windows in a large energy wave—

A pained groan escapes him when he lands on top of something  _ hard, _ body crumpling for a long eternity of a moment as his ears ring, vision blurry and dazed. 

Gingerly, he gets down from the roof of the car he’d just dented, limping slightly as he takes in the devastation around him.

They can’t keep this up for much longer.

  
  


***

  
  


“Hey JARVIS. Ever heard the tale of Jonah?”

His AI sighs. “I wouldn’t consider him a role model, sir.”

Tetsurou does manage to bring down the Leviathan, but the explosions his weapons had wrought inside the creature nearly does more harm than good for him, and he bursts out of the other end with barely enough energy in his thrusters. He rolls down the street in an undignified heap, the wind knocked out of him.

A blast sends him back on his ass, and he sighs heavily as a small band of Chitauri soldiers rush towards him, weapons ablaze.

“Kuroo-san!”

“Ukai-san?” Tetsurou gapes at the voice in his comms, and gets a knock to the back of his head from one of the Chitauri that’s come forward, keeping him down as he grunts in pain.

Ukai’s voice is the most panicked he’s ever heard, and it sends chills down Tetsurou’s spine to hear it, but Ukai’s next words positively freeze him.

“We have a missile headed straight for the city,” Ukai informs him urgently.

_ Fuck. _ Shit, he’d skimmed their weapon schematics, he knows what that missile can do. “How long?”

The director’s reply is a terse, “Five minutes. Stay low and wipe out the missile.”

Tetsurou swallows, swearing as he gets another hit, rolling to his back and blasting off the Chitauri on top of him and gasps, “JARVIS, put everything we’ve got into the thrusters!”

“Already did, sir.”

Somehow, he shakes off the horde, gritting his teeth as his suit gets progressively more damaged in the process, and instructs, “Pinpoint its location, J,” as he glances up at the portal. A cold certainty settles over him, and he can’t help but shake as he races towards the missile, all too aware of what he’s about to do.

What he  _ has _ to do.

As he gets closer to the missile, Saeko’s voice bursts in his comms:

“I can close it! Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down!”

Sawamura’s voice is gruff, tinged with exhaustion as he orders, “Do it!”

But Tetsurou cuts in, doing his best to keep the tremor out of his voice. “No, wait!”

“Kuroo-san, these things are still coming—”

“I’ve got a nuke coming in and it’s gonna blow in less than two minutes,” he interrupts, and then the missile’s in view, right in front of him as he races towards it over Sumida River. JARVIS directs enough strength into the suit’s arms as he wrenches the rocket off its course, steering it from behind as he accelerates towards the portal. “And I know just where to put it.”

There’s a sharp intake of breath on the other side of the line. “Kuroo-san. That’s a one-way trip.”

“You know, I’ve always wanted to go to space,” he replies lightly, voice cracking and fuck, he can’t, he doesn’t want to but he’s gotta do this, there’s too little time left—

Sawamura’s voice is low, all terrified 23-year-old young man, barely an adult even when he’d assumed the leadership role over them, over this team that Tetsurou’s just beginning to learn that he could like, as the Captain brokenly pleads, “ _ No, _ there has to be another way, Kuroo-san, you can’t—”

Tetsurou mutes him, instead of blurting out all of the apologies he’d started thinking of the moment he realised what would happen, when Ukai had asked him to wipe the missile. He cuts off the comms with everyone else right after, because Ryuu’s started yelling at him, about  _ promises _ and Saeko is tellingly silent.

“Save the rest for return, J,” he says softly, watching as the portal draws closer.

“Sir. Shall I call Kozume-san?”

Kenma. Oh, God. How the hell is Tetsurou supposed to explain this?

“No,” he replies firmly, because he  _ knows _ Kenma would be glued to his phone, he’d be waiting for Tetsurou to say something and he hasn’t, even though Kenma knew he was going to be helping SHIELD out for a couple of days, even though they’d postponed their video game night for this mission, because this wasn’t—

This  _ wasn’t the plan, _ but maybe, maybe Tetsurou’s tempted fate one too many times already.

And he won’t subject Kenma to the horror of hearing him die; his childhood friend has gone through more than enough trauma when Tetsurou was still by his side, as it was.

The countdown timer ticks at the edge of his HUD, and with one last thrust, he shifts the nuke to a perpendicular position right below the portal.

_ 13, 12— _

—at least KI would be safe in Kenma’s hands—

_ 10, 9— _

—God, he should have called Yaku last week instead of blowing him off—

_ 7, 6— _

—oh shit oh fuck that is a  _ massive _ mothership oh God is this going to be enough—

_ 4, 3— _

—damn, he  _ really  _ hopes this works, or else his death is going to be fucking meaningless. 

  
  


***

  
  


“Come on, Tetsurou,” Saeko whispers, but Daichi knows they’ve spent too long trying to keep the portal open.

He hadn’t said anything yet, because he  _ needs _ Kuroo to show up, to come back, because there are too many things he’s got to say, even though the other man had cut off their comms seconds before he’d disappeared into the portal and Daichi had bitten his tongue instead of yelling obscenities down the muted line.

The supernova of explosions from the missile are bound to reach Tokyo at this rate though, even though that meant Kuroo had done it, had  _ saved _ them, and when he glances at Bokuto, the Asgardian nods sadly at him.

He sighs heavily, keeping his gaze fixed upward as he instructs Saeko. “Close it.”

The agent, to her credit, doesn’t hesitate.

As the portal closes up, something drops out of it, and Daichi swears as he catches a glimpse of red and gold in the afternoon sun amidst the blue skies. “He made it,” he whispers, but quickly realises something’s wrong, and overwhelming dread turns his stomach to ice.

Bokuto does too, swinging his hammer rapidly beside him. “He’s not slowing down!”

But out of nowhere, the Hulk roars as he leaps above them, catching Kuroo in mid-air and smashes against the side of a building, gripping the walls to slow down their momentum, before crashing down several feet away from Daichi and Bokuto.

The Hulk shoves Iron Man off of him with a grunt, and Bokuto reaches them first, taking off Kuroo’s faceplate. Daichi watches the other man’s still features, blood trailing down the side of that pale face, his hands hovering over Kuroo’s chest, the arc reactor dark and cold as he tries to find a pulse, a movement, something, because Kuroo can’t, he can’t be  _ dead _ after all of that—

Daichi nearly jumps back when the Hulk yells in fury, but the biggest shock is seeing Kuroo’s hazel eyes startle open, his body jerking as he takes in a huge gulp of breath, arc reactor flickering blue once more.

“What the  _ hell _ ?” Kuroo gasps, locking eyes with him, and Daichi lets the other man clutch his wrist tightly to ground himself. “What just happened? Please tell me Bokuto didn’t kiss me.”

“Hey!” the Asgardian protests, indignant and scandalised.

Pure relief, sharp and palpable shoots through Daichi as he chuckles, grinning victoriously down at Kuroo, shifting so that Kuroo’s gauntlet-clad hand is clasping his own.

“You saved us. We did it. We  _ won. _ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whewww this was the longest chapter to date, but I hope you enjoyed the retelling of this iconic first avengers team-up in the mcu!
> 
> coming up in the next chapter: the aftermath, and daichi meets an old friend


	6. first names and familiar faces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He pulls into the yard, already feeling a smile creeping across his face at the thought of seeing his godmother once more. But when he looks over at Sawamura, the bubbling joy is tampered by the anxiety that crops up by the sight of the Captain rigid in his seat, looking like he’s about to face another army.
> 
> Or the ghost of his past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pretty sure I broke myself a couple of times writing this

“You’re supposed to be in a hospital bed.”

Tetsurou snorts, shifting the crutch under his left arm to point, balancing on one leg in the middle of the living room. “So are you, and yet here we are.”

_ Here _ being one of his apartments in Tokyo, just off of Shibuya; the Kuroo Tower is currently undergoing repairs and massive renovations to a number of the floors, as part of a quick yet insightful conversation he’d had with Director Ukai shortly after he’d left (or rather, ran away) from SHIELD’s medical bay.

Shimizu smiles at him, small and more genuine than he’s ever seen from her, as she uses her own walking cane to gently knock his crutch away. “I’m doing fine, Kuroo-san,” she answers lightly. “SHIELD’s just checking in, since you were still believed to be in the medical bay recovering from your injuries.”

“Does Ukai think I’m a flight risk?” Tetsurou jokes, gesturing at his crutch, hand on his abdomen, just above the bandages around his broken ribs under his t-shirt, left ankle in a brace. Thinking of the director brings forth too many complicated emotions, though, ones he’s not ready to face—which isn’t great, since they’re supposed to have a debrief session tomorrow, a week after what the news have been calling ‘the Battle of Tokyo’.

But Shimizu looks at him knowingly. “I believe Director Ukai would be right in expecting you at the debrief,” she replies.

And Tetsurou doesn’t know what to do with this sudden show of confidence she has in him, so he merely turns around to limp back to his couch.

“Ah,” she adds, catching his attention, “Agent Tanaka—the brother—said to tell you that you’re still in for an… Ass-whooping for breaking your promise,” and Tetsurou half-laughs, half-grimaces at the mental sight of Ryuu yelling at him from SHIELD’s medical bay, having fractured his right leg when he was escaping from the Chitauri.

“Thanks, I think.”

Shimizu nods in acknowledgement, before turning to leave.

But something jumps out at him as he watches the way she carefully balances herself with the cane, her gait just the slightest bit stiff, and he blurts out, “Why’d you go up against Daishou all alone, Shimizu?”

_ “She could have waited for back-up.” _

The agent turns around, and blinks at his question. “Kuroo-san,” she starts, before pausing. It’s the most rattled he’s ever seen her in the past four years since their paths first crossed.

“Why did you fly that nuke into space?”   
Tetsurou frowns at her, mind flashing back to the terrifying vision he’d last seen before blacking out and waking up on the city streets. “Because Tokyo would’ve blown up. I… I had to do something.”

There’s a pause between them, before Shimizu nods slowly. Her eyes are suddenly filled with understanding, and Tetsurou swallows at the unbridled emotion behind her placid expression. 

“Me too, Kuroo-san,” she says at last.

  
  


***

  
  


Shimizu hasn’t been his only guest, though.

Saeko has practically been living with him ever since he broke out of the medical bay with Kai’s help—he’d woken up the next morning after his escape to the smell of eggs and her wearing one of his hoodies, bent over the stove and frowning down at the pan.

There’s Kenma too, who had been there since his stay in medical, not really straying away from his side even when he’d moved to the apartment, keen eyes watching every clumsy move Tetsurou makes.

Neither of them had broached the topic of Tetsurou’s near-death experience, but when Kenma finally left for a business meeting up in Hokkaido that he couldn’t get out of, he doesn’t look at Tetsurou as he softly asked, “You’ll be here when I get back, right?”

“Of course, kitten,” he’d choked out through a failing grin, and Kenma sighs.

“We’ll talk when I get back,” Kenma says, finally meeting his gaze. Tetsurou doesn’t bother hiding his frown, but he nods in agreement anyway.

He owes his oldest friend that, at least.

Tetsurou hears from Saeko that her brother hasn’t been allowed to leave SHIELD medical, and when he’d heard of Tetsurou’s escape (that had involved short circuiting several equipment just long enough for him to sneak through the backdoor of the third floor cafeteria), he’d apparently threw a hissy fit about it, and only seeing Shimizu had calmed him down. Only slightly though, because then he’d panicked over her walking around, despite how comfortable Shimizu already seems to be with the cane.

Saeko also tells him over pizza one night that Bokuto was still on Earth, catching up with Dr. Sakusa and their friends who were staying in Nara, digging up whatever information they could about the Tesseract.

“The Captain escorted them, by the way,” she says without prompting.

He doesn’t bother swallowing the rest of his salmon pizza slice, mouth full as he simply waggles his eyebrows and replies, “I know.”

When he’d first woken up in medical, Sawamura had been sitting beside his bed, scrolling on his phone and dressed in civilian clothes. For a moment he had the jarring sensation of seeing how well the Captain had started to fit in a world that was alien to him merely months ago, but the thought got overridden by how familiar the plaid shirt and jeans combo looked on Sawamura; an outfit Tetsurou was more used to seeing on him than the tac gear that SHIELD had provided for their mission.

Privately, Tetsurou thought he’d preferred this version—even though Sawamura had been every bit the Captain Tetsurou had always imagined as a child listening to Aunt Yui’s stories.

Watching Sawamura look so at ease with his surroundings made Tetsurou decide announcing his consciousness with a clever remark would be a smart choice, except when he’d tried to speak, his throat was so dry that he had ended up having a coughing fit, startling the Captain severely into nearly dropping his phone.

“Oh my—are you, okay, take it easy, Kuroo-san,” he’d said in a quick jumble of words, hands reaching out for a moment before he mumbled, “I’ll… Let me get you something to drink, yeah?”

When Tetsurou felt he could finally open his mouth again without choking anymore, Sawamura had returned, a glass of water in his hand.

“Want me to prop you up?”

Tetsurou flopped his hand around in a “don’t mind” gesture, before dropping it to the side of the bed to find the buttons necessary to raise the bed. Before long, he’d sat upright, but couldn’t control the knee-jerk reaction of wincing as Sawamura handed him the glass.

The Captain blinked, looking unsure. “It’s, um, a little cold, but it should help with your throat, Kuroo-san.”

Instead of answering, Tetsurou had flushed, but took the drink anyway, sighing in relief after gulping down a few mouthfuls. He’d blamed it on his still-groggy head then and the sudden burst of adrenaline from being handed something, but Tetsurou had glanced up at the Captain, who’d taken his seat again, and said, “I could get used to you waiting on me like this, Cap.”

That had gotten Sawamura to roll his eyes, but Tetsurou thought it was probably in exasperated amusement, judging from the way the Captain’s shoulders had finally lost most of their tension.

“I’m sure you’ve got plenty of people doing that for you already,” Sawamura had replied dryly.

And Tetsurou, because he’s always had a death wise and an incessant need to rile up Sawamura in every way possible, had smirked at the other man, before saying, “None of them cuts a figure as fine as you in plaid, though.”

There’s a beat where Tetsurou thought he’d absolutely fucked everything up between them, even more than their argument on the helicarrier had, by not taking into account Sawamura’s 1960s sensibilities, but then Sawamura had burst into laughter, loud chuckles that deepened the smile wrinkles around his eyes and mouth as he slapped his thigh soundly.

He calmed down after a few moments, and then shook his head when he made eye contact with Tetsurou again. “Please don’t tell me that’s how you got your playboy reputation, Kuroo-san.”

Something loosened in his chest a little, and he let out a deep exhale, grumbling, “Well, excuse me for being a little off my game, considering I’m in a… Hospital?” Tetsurou took another look around, noting the medical equipment around him, and squinting down at the terrible green pyjamas he’d been put in. Damn it, he knew SHIELD has a file on his arc reactor, but it’s sparse and he’d like it to stay that way. “What happened, exactly?” 

That had wiped the grin off of Sawamura’s face.

“After the—after you fell and then woke up again, you insisted you were fine to go and apprehend Daishou with us at the tower,” he started, eyes glancing away.

His words had brought a vague recollection of walking through the rubble of Tokyo, the Iron Man suit way too damaged to even try and navigate the skies. Tetsurou nodded, gesturing at Sawamura to continue.

“Apparently, you hadn’t quite recovered from the fall, and right after SHIELD escorted Daishou out of your penthouse, you sort of… Keeled over?”

Tetsurou gaped.

_ “I fainted?!” _

“Dropped like a rock, I’m afraid. Bokuto was hysterical and Hulk was close to destroying your home just to get you to wake up. The paramedics say it was the concussion, mostly, but you’ve also got a broken ankle, three fractured ribs, and bruising all over,” Sawamura finished with a frown as he looked back at Tetsurou again.

Tetsurou inhaled, and began taking in the extent of damage that his body had received in the battle; he’d already thought of several potential schematics he could use to build a suitable brace for his ankle, but on the whole, he hadn’t thought he’d come out that badly, in comparison with the shrapnel and the palladium.

Shrugging, he took another swig of the water, and replied, “Well, I’m surprised it isn’t worse.”

But that hadn’t seemed to make Sawamura feel any better, judging from the way his shoulders had hunched up at Tetsurou’s words.

“Kuroo-san, you almost died at least twice,” he’d said, shaking his head.

For a moment, Tetsurou considered brushing it off with a joke, like he’s wont to do, more than ever these days, but something about the defeated, haunted gaze in Sawamura’s brown eyes stopped him short.

“You know,” he said softly, “I could have said the same about you, Cap.”

“That’s different,” Sawamura argued, “I’m—I was  _ supposed to. _ Not that I’m not, well, surprised to not be, but—” he stopped, and sighed heavily. “You know, if we’re going to work together like this again, at least run though your suicide mission plans with me before you even think about carrying them out.”

Tetsurou had been absolutely bursting at the seams trying to figure out what Samamura had wanted to say, but he’d grown tired again by that point, the painkillers setting in once more, so he’d slumped back against his pillow and scoffed at the Captain’s second point.

“I’m not sure SHIELD would be all that happy about having Kuroo Tetsurou on a team of heroes.”

Sawamura stared at him. “You  _ are _ a hero, Kuroo-san.”

“Iron Man is—”

“Yeah,” Sawamura rolled his eyes. “And he’s  _ you _ .”

The Captain had carried on talking then, as if Tetsurou hadn’t just been struck dumb by his words. “Director Ukai wanted to talk more about the Avengers anyway, once everyone’s feeling better. We’ve got a debrief in six days.”

A week after Tokyo, God what the hell was Tetsurou supposed to do while waiting and recovering from his injuries? He’d glanced up at Sawamura, who was looking at his phone again. “How’re you gonna fill all that time without me showing you around, Cap?”

Sawamura grinned. “Well, they tell me it’s a vacation, but really, I’ve been tasked to accompany Bokuto to bring Dr. Sakusa back to Nara. Apparently they’ve got friends there,” he’d said, looking hilariously perturbed by the idea of the Asgardian having actual human friends.

“Oh, SHIELD giving you guys air miles with the quintjet now?”

A slight shudder had passed over Sawamura, almost too subdued for Tetsurou to catch. “No, uh. We’ll just take the bullet train first thing tomorrow.” And then his smile had turned a little more unsure. “I just wanted to make sure you were alright.”

There was a part of Tetsurou then that had started wondering how much of a worrywart Sawamura would turn out to be, but all he’d done was laugh. “I’ve had worse hangovers than this, Cap.”

“Still.” Sawamura’s smile had widened, though. “I’ll see you when I get back then, Kuroo-san.”

And then the Captain had left shortly after, replaced by Kenma’s steady vigil by his side until Tetsurou was out of the medical bay and nearly scratching at the walls for something to do that hadn’t involved leg exercises or trying to sneak out past Saeko just for a chance to head down to the nearest bar.

Because the nights have become a lot longer now, when he’s not under the weird sleep haze that drugs send him under, and he misses being back at his tower, and he’s even looking forward to the changes being made to the building.

His thoughts somehow lead him back to the text message that had woken him up from a quick nap before Shimizu had dropped by, as he goes to bed that night.

He’s not sure how to prepare himself to meet everyone else as Iron Man, when his body still aches and his mind is still too scattered from everything that had happened, but at least—

At least he can always count on her, Tetsurou thinks, and frowns at the last part of the text message, just before he goes to reply to it.

“I really hope I’m not about to give the Captain his first ever post-serum heart attack,” he mutters, sending his answer before settling in for another sleepless night.

_ Okay, I’ll see if he wants to come with _

_ 1.09AM _

  
  


***

  
  


“Thanks again for coming along with me, Sawamura Daichi!”

Daichi grins, unable to stop himself from being buoyed by Bokuto’s sheer enthusiasm. “No problem, buddy. It was nice to see some other parts of Japan too—kinda felt like I was a tourist in my own country, honestly.”

The Asgardian nods, fiddling with the strap of his backpack as he shifts in his seat, glancing out at the window, Tokyo station under a minute away as the train begins to come to a stop. “Japan’s pretty awesome, and I’m saying that as someone who grew up on Asgard.”

Having spent the majority of five days with Bokuto, Daichi’s learned to recognise that as a compliment, coming from the other guy. He chuckles anyway, and says, “Glad to hear it. Come on, if we hurry we can grab a cup of coffee before the debrief. Kuroo-san showed me a good spot a couple of blocks away from the SHIELD headquarters.” He brings his cap lower, watching Bokuto do the same before the announcement for their stop rings out.

The mid-morning Thursday crowd nearly swallows them up as they make their way out, and Daichi grits his teeth to bite back apologies as people inevitably bump into him. Bokuto doesn’t seem to be having the same issue, but he does start looking a little lost by the sheer number of people, and Daichi reaches over to grab his arm, steering them until they’re thankfully out of the station.

“How long have you and Kuroo been fighting side by side?” Bokuto asks him 15 minutes later, slurping up his matcha latte, whipped cream stuck on his upper lip.

Daichi blinks at him in confusion. “This was my first mission with him.”  _ First mission since the ice, honestly. _

Bokuto’s jaw drops, golden eyes going big and inexplicably shiny, nearly dropping his drink as he flails his arms around. “But you guys work so well together! Man, it took me at least two Earth centuries to figure out how to fight with the army back home—say, you think we’ll have more battles together?”

“I guess we’ll find out soon enough,” Daichi answers non-committedly, but the idea of working with a team—with sharp-eyed Saeko and boisterous Ryuunosuke, mild-mannered Asahi and his raging green counterpart, with Bokuto, who’s almost as alien as himself and Kuroo, his snark and wit loud as they come, his tendency to run headlong into danger with a reckless smirk—

It makes his breath catch with the sudden force of his desire to _belong_ _somewhere_ once more.

When they reach the headquarters, draining the last of their coffees, Agent Shimizu’s at the lobby, standing by the doors, cane in one hand and a tablet in the other.

“Good morning, Captain Sawamura, Bokuto-san,” she greets them, and somehow Daichi knows she’s smiling, despite the blank expression she’s sporting.

“Hey hey! We didn’t know you were back on your feet already!” Bokuto exclaims excitedly, looking like he’s restraining himself from hugging her.

Daichi has had intimate, first-hand experience with Bokuto’s hugs during their travels, and he’s incredibly glad Bokuto’s practicing some self-restraint, even if he oddly feels the same way, a grin spreading across his face as he looks at her.

Shimizu answers, “For the most part,” and tightens her grip on the cane slightly, which immediately wipes the relief he’d felt a second ago, until she adds, “I heard about your exploits in Tokyo last week. Well done,” and Daichi watches as she actually reveals her grin, glasses glinting.

Daichi rubs the back of his neck sheepishly, heat spreading across his cheeks. “We just did what we had to, what we could.”

The agent nods. “You did enough. Shall we?”

They follow her as she leads them to the lifts, going up several floors and then through a number of security check-points, during which Bokuto had to surrender a few knives that had been strapped to some unusual parts of his body, and Daichi gave the lone gun he carries on a daily basis. Finally, Shimizu stops in front of a rather nondescript door, and opens it up with a retinal scanner to the side.

On the other side, Director Ukai stands at the head of the table in a direct recall of the last time Daichi had seen him in a room like this, looking imposing in his all-black ensemble. Agent Takeda flanks his right, dressed down in a sweater and khaki pants, smiling at them as they enter, and Shimizu goes to join them.

Sitting closest to the director and the agents is Saeko, who winks at them—she’s wearing what Daichi’s come to know as her civilian clothing; black leather jacket, form-fitting red top and jeans. He wonders if she’d somehow sneaked a weapon in, or if SHIELD agents were the exception to the security checkpoints’ rule. Her brother is sprawled in the seat to her left, and Daichi spots a crutch beside Ryuunosuke, his left leg in a purple cast and propped up on the chair beside him.

“How was the vacation, boys?” Saeko calls out.

Bokuto beams at her. “It was great! We got to pet deers and everything!”

They did. Daichi had to stop Bokuto from trying to take one back with him to Asgard.

Ryuunosuke chokes on a cackle when he stares at Daichi, shoulders shaking in muffled laughter, like he can hear Daichi’s thoughts.

“It was nice,” Daichi replies simply.

And then the door opens up behind them, followed by a familiar voice ringing out, “What’s up, babes? Has the party started?”

From this distance, he can clearly see the way Director Ukai’s eye twitches, and he has to tamp down a snort when he turns around to see the newcomers.

He’s seen Kuroo in an assortment of outfits throughout their meetings together, but the man rarely pulls out a full three-piece suit like the one he’s got on now, the navy blue blazer tailored to his form as Kuroo waves his crutch at them lazily, hair messy as ever and glasses perched on his nose. Kuroo doesn’t look like he’s been recovering from an actual battle, smirk sharp enough to cut any tension, but for a second Daichi sees black and blue on a pale face and it takes him a moment to recover.

Dr. Azumane sighs beside Kuroo, his own dark brown hair up in a bun, and looking the furthest away from being menacing in his sweater vest and pants. “Sorry we’re late. Um, it hasn’t started yet, has it?”

That finally gets Director Ukai to speak. “Now that everyone has deigned to show up, if you all could take a seat, I’d gladly appreciate it.”

Feeling oddly like a chastised high schooler, Daichi quickly heads over to the table to sit, followed by the other three.

The director watches all of them for a long moment, and Daichi’s skin prickles at the scrutiny.

“First off, nice work on keeping Tokyo safe,” he begins. There’s a quick flash of a grin on the man’s weathered features, before he continues, “The governor of Tokyo sends her thanks, and her bills—but we’ll talk about that later.”

“As agreed, Daishou Suguru will be taken back to Asgard with Bokuto. We’ve put him in a temporary sleep for the time being so he won’t be up to no good.” Bokuto squirms beside Daichi. “And we’ll let Asgard deal justice to him.”

And then Ukai’s tone shifts, eye narrowed at them. “Be that as it may, I still stand by my words in the lab.”

“Earth has attracted attention, and we need to be prepared. The Battle of Tokyo turned out in our favour, but the city was nearly decimated in the process. While risks are necessary in this field—” he pauses, and glances at both Saeko and Kuroo, who meet his stare head-on.

“I’d rather we were prepared enough so that we’d have less of those in the first place.”

Daichi thinks of how defenceless Earth might have been if they hadn’t gotten their shit together sooner, if Ukai hadn’t brought them all in one place, and has to suppress a shiver.

“You were right.”

He nearly gets a crick in his neck with how fast he turns to look at Kuroo, who’s drumming his fingers against the table rhythmically, gaze blank and unseeing, like he’s not even there in the room with them.

Across the table, Ryuunosuke whispers, “Did I just hear Tetsurou agree with the director?”

Ukai stares at Kuroo. “About what, Kuroo-san?”

Kuroo blinks, and it’s like he’s just brought himself back to the room, lips curling at the corners as he glances at everyone. “We’re  hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned.” His voice is flat as he recites Ukai’s words from the helicarrier. “Question is, what are  _ you _ planning to do about it?”

“I believe last week showed that when needed, the individuals in this room are capable enough to show up and defend Earth to the best of their abilities,” and something nearly strangles Daichi’s throat, the beginnings of hope wrapping itself too tight around him because it absolutely sounds like Ukai is proposing to put them all together as a  _ team, _ that Tokyo, that  _ they _ might not have been a one-off event.

“So you’re rescinding your decision on benching me from the Avengers?” Kuroo snorts, and something cold splashes all over Daichi.

Perhaps it’s why he blurts out, “I’d prefer that Kuroo-san—and everyone in this room, for the matter—be part of the initiative, if you’re really going to go through with it.”

Silence follows his words, and Daichi musters what little courage he has left after that outburst to glance over at Kuroo, who’s watching him with startled hazel eyes behind his glasses, mouth open and frozen in his seat.

Daichi clears his throat, tearing his gaze away to look at Ukai. “That’s, uh. That’s all I wanted to say. Sir.”

It’s Takeda that breaks the weirdly tense atmosphere he’d accidentally created. “Well,” the agent says, clapping his hands once. “We did bring all of you here, after all.”

Bokuto bangs his fist on the table, sparking a little as he grins widely. “My dudes, it would be an honour to serve Midgard by your sides!”

“I need to know who was responsible for this guy’s pop culture dictionary,” Ryuunosuke pipes up with a snort, “And shake their hand.”

Asahi’s voice is soft and unsure. “I… I don’t know how much help I’ll be, though.”

That seems to snap Kuroo back into motion, who slaps the doctor’s shoulder, grin back in place. “Nonsense doc, you literally  _ yelled _ me back to  _ life _ , and you heard what the Captain said,” he jerks his head in Daichi’s direction, and Daichi doesn’t know how to interpret the other man’s smile as he says, “It’s all of us or none of us, apparently.”

“To answer your question, Kuroo-san,” Ukai speaks up at last, “You were never benched, just moved to a consulting role. However, in light of recent events, I can agree with Captain Sawamura that everyone here has something to offer to the table—even you, Dr. Azumane. Which brings us to the next item on the agenda.”

“There’s more?” Kuroo stage-whispers. Somehow, Daichi restrains himself from rolling his eyes in exasperation.

Ukai continues like he doesn’t even hear Kuroo. “We’ll need to appoint a team leader. I feel like some of you have an answer already, but I’m going to leave the choice to you and come back in 15 minutes once you’ve all decided.”

And then he leaves through a separate door from where they’d entered, Takeda and Shimizu right behind him.

It’s Saeko that speaks first, less than a second after the door closes. “All in favour of Cap, say I.”

“Wait, what—” Daichi splutters, but he’s cut off by Ryuunosuke’s raucous “I”, followed by Bokuto’s enthusiastic agreement beside him.

He stares at the Tanaka siblings across the table, at Saeko, whose smile looks smaller and softer than he’s ever seen from her, at Ryuunosuke’s sharp, confident grin, and something almost breaks inside him.

“Sawamura?”

Daichi turns to look at Kuroo when he hears his name, quiet and certain. Kuroo’s arms are crossed over his chest, glasses sliding down his nose and hazel eyes piercing through Daichi as he frowns.

“We wouldn’t have made it to the other side without your call, Captain,” and the apologies and protests hang on the edge of Daichi’s tongue, ready to drip down in streams of  _ “I’m sorry”s _ and  _ “What if you guys got hurt again?” _

But Kuroo doesn’t even give him the chance, lips turning up into a smirk as he adds, “Turns out you could teach an old dog new tricks, after all.”

Sometimes, he doesn’t know how he’s ever going to be able to thank Kuroo for the way the man selflessly gives olive branches and a way to pull back from the complicated emotions that threaten to drown Daichi on a regular basis.

However, all he manages to say is, “I’m technically an entire decade younger than you, Kuroo-san.”

That causes Kuroo to squawk hilariously as the others laugh; even Asahi chuckles good-naturedly and somehow Daichi finds his feet again, the necessary words stumbling their way out of his mouth as he speaks again.

“If all of you feel that’s the best decision, then I’ll accept it.”

Quietly, Asahi smiles at him and replies, “I.”

Beside him, Kuroo, smirk still on his lips, winks. “I, Cap.”

When Ukai and the two SHIELD agents return to the room, none of them seem surprised by the decision as Saeko reveals it to them. The meeting wraps up soon after, with Kuroo’s surprising announcement with regards to their upcoming new living arrangements, and ends with promises to extract paperwork from each and every one of them. “Yes, including you, Iron Man,” Ukai grouses, and then they’re dismissed.

But Kuroo catches him by the arm as they begin to move out, and Daichi recognises it as a silent request to stay behind as the others leave.

“Did you need something, Kuroo-san?” he asks, once the door closes.

There’s an uncharacteristic hesitancy in Kuroo’s demeanour, and subconsciously, Daichi feels himself tense up, getting ready for whatever it is that’s causing Kuroo to look that nervous. “You knew my godmother, Michimiya Yui, right?”

Oh God,  _ Michimiya. _ She’d be, what—in her 70s, now?

“Yeah,” Daichi croaks out. “I—we fought together during the Siege Battles, then.”

Kuroo nods, eyes skipping all over Daichi before their gaze settles somewhere on his right shoulder. “Right, yeah, she’s mentioned it a couple of times.” He exhales, and his next words come out in a jumble. “Anyway, she, uh. She’s summoned me for a visit.”

“Summon?”

At that, Kuroo grins, boyish and embarrassed. “Her exact words were: “I better see your butt in my living room sometime in the next two weeks, or else.” And I don’t know about you, Cap, but I’d like to avoid whatever ‘or else’ entails.”

Daichi can’t help but laugh, because he’s come face to face with Michimiya Yui’s ‘or else’ once upon a time, and doesn’t begrudge Kuroo in the slightest.

“But here’s the catch,” Kuroo continues, and he looks apologetic as he says, “She wants to know if you’d like to come with me.”

“Come with—you mean, see Michimiya?” Can he?  _ Should _ he?

Kuroo nods. “I told her I’d ask you, but if you’d rather not, that’s fine too.”

For a moment, Daichi contemplates the word “no”, feels its shape in his mouth, walking away from the one thing he knows that’s still tethering him to his past and everyone else’s history textbooks.

In the end, it only takes him a moment to say, “Yeah. I’d… I’d like that, I think.”

  
  


***

  
  


“When did Michimiya leave Japan?”

Tetsurou turns towards Sawamura, smoothly shifting gears as they speed down the road in his automated Audi, both feet firmly planted away from the pedals, one of them now in an ankle brace after a week and a half since the battle. It’s not usually this quiet on Jeju Island, now that they’re exiting the last dregs of summer, but he doesn’t see many other vehicles passing by while he continues to drive on.

“Ten years ago, give or take?” he answers, memories of Aunt Yui bringing him out for breakfast one day flitting through his mind as she tells him, “I heard Jeju’s nice this time of the year. I might just spend the rest of my days there.”

He shakes his head to get rid of the thoughts, the image of his godmother smiling brightly at him slipping away. “She retired from SHIELD sometime in the late 90s, but she couldn’t help responding to their calls whenever she was in town, so she decided to just… Remove herself completely. Said she kept second-guessing her retirement, even though she knew she more than deserved it.”

Beside him, Sawamura hums softly.

It hadn’t escaped Tetsurou, the way Sawamura had relaxed as soon as they’d stepped out of his jet when they landed at Jeju Airport earlier, and a part of him wonders—but he has a hunch as to why the Captain hadn’t fully loosened his grip on the plane seat during the entire flight, and keeps shut about it.

Especially when Sawamura seems to look so damn comfortable in comparison now that he’s in Tetsurou’s car, dressed down in a t-shirt and jeans that showcase the serum’s gift to his body, tapping along to the soft rock music from the radio.

“She was married, right?”

Tetsurou nods, thinking of the man that had been there at the hazy edge of his memories. “For a short while, yeah. I don’t remember him much. And she didn’t have any kids either.”

He feels Sawamura’s gaze on him when the Captain turns. “She had you though, didn’t she?”

The simple statement brings him up short, and he doesn’t meet Sawamura’s eyes.

“I guess she did.”

It’s been over a year since Tetsurou had made his way down to Michimiya Yui’s Jeju home, but even JARVIS’ GPS directions weren’t all that needed as he turns onto the driveway that would lead to a modest yellow bungalow right along the coastline, its bright red roof a beacon amidst the background of the sand and sea.

He pulls into the yard, already feeling a smile creeping across his face at the thought of seeing his godmother once more. But when he looks over at Sawamura, the bubbling joy is tampered by the anxiety that crops up by the sight of the Captain rigid in his seat, looking like he’s about to face another army.

_ Or the ghost of his past. _

Tetsurou’s never been great at reassuring someone, though, so he merely says, “Come on, it’s not nice to keep a lady waiting,” as he shuts off the engine.

“Of course,” Sawamura says faintly, and Tetsurou raises his brows, impressed but unsurprised when the Captain steps out of the car first.

He follows suit after grabbing his crutch from the backseat, and he’s about a couple of feet away from the doorstep, Sawamura right in front of him, when the door opens.

“Took you long enough to find your way back here.”

A woman stands on the doorstep—his godmother, founder of SHIELD and the person who ensured that his childhood, while not normal, was still one he could look back with a semblance of fondness, along with Ana and Edwin Jarvis right by her side.

It has been nearly a decade and a half since Michimiya Yui attended his MIT graduation, but Tetsurou instantly recognises the same proud, slightly exasperated smile she bears when she looks up at him.

He grins back, ducking his head in a quick bow before leaning down lower to let her press a kiss to his cheek. “Sorry, got caught up with work,” he replies as he stands up straight, lifting the crutch beside him pointedly.

A shadow passes over Aunt Yui’s face, and she reaches up to pat his cheek, her smile growing slightly forlorn. “It’s good to see you again, Tetsu-chan.”

There’s a lump in his throat when he realises how close he’d been to not seeing her anymore, but he bears it down with a waggle of his eyebrows as he replies, “Brought you an antique gift, by the way,” and shifts around to reveal Sawamura, who’d come to a stop behind him the moment Aunt Yui had appeared.

At Tetsurou’s movement, Sawamura stands up straight, face looking like a deer in headlights before he makes his way towards them. Tetsurou watches, something too complicated to name brewing in his chest as he watches the tears gather in the Captain’s dark brown eyes, his smile the shakiest Tetsurou has ever seen on him.

Sawamura comes to a stop in front of them, before bowing in a full 90-degree angle, staying in that posture for several moments. And then he lifts his head, cheeks visibly wet.

“Hullo, Michimiya,” he greets softly, gentle and filled with pain.

Aunt Yui’s answering smile is bright, eyes similarly shiny as she watches him.

“I’ve been waiting to meet you again, Daichi.”

  
  


***

  
  


_ God. _

It’s only been four months since he’d last seen Michimiya Yui in that car, right at the edge of that jagged cliff as he climbed his way into the HYDRA jet, mind filled with the devastating image of Suga’s death, of Michimiya’s trembling voice before—

Kuroo excuses himself, loudly proclaiming, “I’m gonna take a look at your toaster, Oba-chan,” and slips inside the house, leaving Daichi to just stare at the stranger in front of him.

Her hair is no longer that specific shade of mousy brown; it’s streaked with white and grey, but it’s still the same haircut—short and neat, pushed slightly away from her face by the glasses that hadn’t been there before. Instead of the dark green military uniform she had donned in her twenties, an oversized red sweater dwarfs her slight figure now, with dark long pants to match the very comfortable look.

“I’m sorry it took me this long to visit,” Daichi finally says, unable to tear his eyes away, cataloguing all the differences and similarities he could see. He’s no longer crying, but perhaps it’s the shock taking over.

Michimiya seems to be able to sense the shock currently running through his system, because she reaches out to wrap thin fingers around his wrist, gently tugging him closer.

“It’s been over forty years, what’s four more months?” she says with a teasing grin, laugh lines evident around her mouth and eyes, but that somehow helps to ease the band around Daichi’s chest. “Come on, you didn’t come all the way here just to talk on my doorstep,” she adds, and lets go of his wrist, moving inside to make way for him.

_ “Ojamashimasu,” _ Daichi murmurs as he steps across the doorway, and Michimiya points out a spare pair of house slippers for him. Even from the  _ genkan, _ he can feel how warm her home is; numerous pictures line the walls, and a radio plays something soft and jazzy and vaguely familiar somewhere in the house.

Michimiya walks ahead of him slowly, her pace belying the years between them. “Welcome; it’s a little cluttered but I kind of prefer it that way,” she says sheepishly. “God, I hope Tetsu-chan hasn’t completely decimated my kitchen appliances.”

There’s no helping the way Daichi grins widely at the frankly adorable nickname. “Does Kuroo-san do that very often?”

A proud smile stretches across Michimiya’s features when she turns back to look at him, and she pauses in front of one of the photos around them.

It’s Kuroo, of course, and he doesn’t look older than six years old, his hair that recognisable mess as he stands right beside what looks like a motorized engine, screwdriver in one hand and holding up a peace sign with the other.

“He was always buildin’ and fixin’ whatever he could get his hands on,” Michimiya says softly beside him, and Daichi hears a clear note of sadness in her words. “I don’t think he ever truly grew out of it.”

Daichi can’t help but feel like he’s intruded upon something incredibly private when the words sink in; he keeps quiet anyway, and lets her lead him to the living room.

At a first glance, it’s the colours that scream out at him; bright and cosy, with numerous throws and pillows scattered across the plaid-patterned couch and the two yellow armchairs on either side of it. He spots the radio on top of a shelf, and there’s a sea breeze coming in through the open windows.

“Sit down, I’ll bring you some tea,” Michimiya tells him; he almost protests, but she just huffs out a, “I need to check on my godson anyway,” before going down another hallway, to where the kitchen presumably is.

With Michimiya leaving him on his own, the unexplainable ball of guilt, longing, relief and grief makes itself a little more pronounced, and it takes nearly too much in him to push down the sob threatening to break out of him as he collapses onto the couch heavily.

He grips his thighs, wincing as he digs his nails in deep, inhaling roughly before letting out a shuddery breath.

_ Michimiya’s alive. _ She’s—she isn’t the same Michimiya from back then, the one who’d been with him in the thick of battle against Russia and HYDRA, but she’s still alive.

Fuck,  _ he’s _ alive.

When Michimiya returns with tea, he’s got most of his jitters under control, thanking her softly as she hands him a cup, the mild fragrance from the drink a soothing scent.

“Where’s Kuroo-san?”

Michimiya takes the armchair next to the couch, a sigh escaping her. “He’s moved on to my rice cooker, but really he’s just trying to give us some time to catch up, I think,” and Daichi feels like he’s learned more about the man in the past ten minutes than with the man himself in the last almost 10 weeks.

“I saw you two—when Tokyo happened,” Michimiya clarifies when Daichi fixes her with a confused look. “I didn’t think I would ever see the day that my godson and his childhood hero would work together to save the world.”

A flush travels down Daichi’s neck. “You talked about me?”

Michimiya smiles wistfully, glancing down at her cup. “It was one of the few ways I could think of to keep you alive somehow.”

“I….” Daichi trails off, and takes a shaky gulp of his tea. “But you’ve lived well, haven’t you?”

“Mmhmm,” she hums. “I’ve lived a life, indeed. But my only regret is that you didn’t get to live yours.”

Daichi leans back against the couch as he looks at the woman who could have been—one of the very few people who’d believed in him before the serum and the missions and the way he could finally back his mouth with his fists.

“That day with… With the crash, I would have never thought that I’d get another chance,” he says hoarsely, careful to not crush the cup in his grip. “The world’s changed so much, Michimiya. And I don’t… All I ever wanted was to do what was right. How does that look like on this side of the century?”

Michimiya doesn’t answer him immediately. She adjusts her position in the armchair, leaning forward and her hand, once calloused and rough from the constant handling of weaponry, feels a little cool and soft now when she places her palm on his arm.

Her eyes are still the same shade of determination and kindness, though.

“SHIELD was established when I realised the Siege Battles had… Unforeseen consequences in the espionage world. HYDRA, we thought, was destroyed when you saved us, but over the decades we’d always hear rumours, discovered smaller plants and bases. That was all we could ever find, though,” she shares quietly.

“I gave 25 years of my life to that organisation, because I believed we needed to do what we could to keep this country, this  _ world, _ safe,” Michimiya squeezes his arm, and Daichi shifts, putting his cup away before taking her small hand in his larger one.

She smiles up at him, gripping his hand tightly. “That doesn’t mean you have to do the same and throw yourself back into that life again, however. Are you going to serve? Follow orders? Not that you were particularly good at it, anyway.”

A wobbly laugh escapes him. “Did you ever tell anyone that?”

There’s a twinkle in her eyes. “No one would believe me!”

“False, all you had were compliments for the good Captain,” Kuroo’s voice appears from behind, and Daichi turns around to see the man himself shaking his head, a black cat nestled in his arms. “If I knew Sawamura was such a rebel I wouldn’t have tried to be on my best behaviour for so long.”

Daichi wonders what Kuroo would have been like if he hadn’t gone out of his way to help Daichi integrate back into the frankly amazing and terrifying world of the 21st century.

He’s absurdly glad he’d never have to find out.

“Oh, I wondered where she’d disappeared off,” Michimiya murmurs. Kuroo hobbles over towards them and Michimiya lets go of Daichi’s hand, reaching up to pet the cat softly purring into Kuroo’s chest, despite his jerky movements. “And sit down, please—you gave me enough of a heart attack with that stunt you pulled over the city.”

Kuroo complies with a huff, dragging his leg a little as he walks over to sit beside Daichi on the couch. “Oba-chan, we don’t joke about heart attacks at your age.”

“Then stop being so reckless,” she shoots back calmly, taking a sip of her tea.

Daichi thinks Michimiya is on to something, but before he can say anything, she shifts her gaze towards him. “That goes for you too, Daichi. Have you forgotten all your training already?”

He’s pretty sure his ears have gone firetruck red while Kuroo cackles next to him, accidentally dislodging the cat; it gives a plaintive meow before crawling over to Daichi’s lap, and he awkwardly pets it as it stretches, before curling up on his thighs.

The rest of the afternoon is spent with Daichi listening to Michimiya talking about her life, much of it centred around Kuroo’s childhood, and something unfamiliar slides around his thoughts as he watches the way Kuroo looks torn between indignation and satisfaction at his godmother’s stories.

When the sun’s rays have filtered through the windows for long enough that they have turned golden, Kuroo gets up, excusing himself to prepare dinner.

Daichi volunteers to help, eyeing the absence of Kuroo’s crutch by his side, but Kuroo merely claps his shoulder and says, “We don’t let guests do the housework around here,” before disappearing into the kitchen. He turns back around to see Michimiya watching him.

“Would you like to see the backyard?”

As a country boy, the only times he’d ever seen the ocean was when he had been shipped over to neutral Switzerland, before moving into the enemy territory of Russia, and then minutes before his death.

This sunset looks different; a little wilder, with pinks and purples streaking across the skies as Michimiya leaves the door open behind them, letting the music waft outside, crooning something slow and sweet. She makes no move to sit in the two garden chairs on the porch, and Daichi stands beside her as they watch the sun setting on the horizon of the ocean ahead of them.

“Thank you,” Daichi says softly, never tearing his gaze away from the scene in front of him. “I never got to say those words back then, even though I should have. You were one of the reasons why I could do what I did as Captain.”

Michimiya’s laugh is as loud and tender as he remembers. “Sometimes I wonder if the serum didn’t actually do anything to your head. I saw you before you packed on all of that muscle, Daichi, and I trusted that skinny little runt, even before everything.”

The utter confidence in her voice is what breaks him at last. He turns to look at her; lost, untethered, searching for an answer as he asks, “What am I supposed to do now, Michimiya?”

He swallows as she reaches up to cup the edge of his jaw, and Daichi searches her expression. Once upon a time, he thought he could learn to figure out how to love her, beyond the initial respect and fear and full-blown admiration, but he knows he said goodbye to those thoughts on that fateful day.

“The world has changed, and none of us can go back,” she whispers, like she sees the way he’s trying not to crumble completely. “All we can do is our best, Daichi,” she smiles brightly, and there’s a tell-tale shimmer in her eyes. “And sometimes the best that we can do is start over.”

She strokes his cheek. “Will you humour an old woman’s request?”

Somehow, Daichi finds it in him to tease, “You’re technically only five years older than me, Michimiya.”

That causes her smile to grow wide as she swats his shoulder in retaliation. “I look like it too,” she chuckles, shaking her head. And then her features soften into something wistful, full of nostalgia. “You’re about forty-two years too late, but do you think you’ll have time now for a dance?”

The music swells around them, but all Daichi hears is a promise he can keep at last, Michimiya Yui and Sawamura Daichi’s wait finally,  _ finally _ coming to an end on a little island in South Korea, halfway across the world and too much time between them from when they’d last said goodbye.

And there’s no helping the way Daichi chokes on a sob as he smiles down at her, enhanced vision suddenly blurry with tears, nodding wordlessly.

  
  


***

  
  


It wasn’t easy to get Sawamura to take the guest room for the night while he insisted on spending the night on Aunt Yui’s couch, but Tetsurou had managed somehow. He probably wouldn’t have been successful though if it wasn’t for Aunt Yui’s intervention, telling the Captain about the amount of times Tetsurou had crashed on that same couch for the last 20 years of his life anyway.

He doesn’t know how she feels, seeing Sawamura in the flesh after believing him to be dead for so long, but he thinks she handled it well. Dinner was a little more subdued, but they’d laughed and rolled their eyes at Tetsurou’s stupid jokes, so perhaps things hadn’t turned out all that bad.

When he settles back at the dining table, beer in hand and dressed in one of his most comfortable hoodies and sweats, he’s joined by his godmother, her afternoon tea now replaced by a glass of mulled wine.

Too keen eyes watch him as he rambles about the modifications he’s planning to make to his ankle brace, and she speaks up when he trails off. “How long has it been since you slept, Tetsurou?”

The absence of his nickname jarrs him, but he throws up an unsteady smirk anyway. “You know I’ve never needed much of that, Oba-chan,” he answers, staring down at his hands.

Fingers that haven’t stopped shaking whenever he wasn’t under the haze of painkillers and mind filled with all the work that still needs to be done back home.

At the periphery of his vision, he sees Aunt Yui reaching over, holding her palm out. 

And Tetsurou is physically incapable of resisting, letting her hold on to his hands to anchor him to the here and now.

“You and Haru-chan are the only ones I have left you know,” she says, looking over to the kitchen shelves, where the cat is curled up right next to the much-improved toaster.

“And Sawamura?”

Aunt Yui smiles at him. “We were comrades for nearly four years, yes. Perhaps if things turned out differently—but they didn’t. And I’m content with the life I’ve lived. Daichi deserves a chance to discover what he wants out of his life.”

She pauses, and squeezes his hands. “I’m actually glad you were there for him, to help him adjust back to the living.”

Tetsurou flushes inexplicably, even though all he’d actually done was bring the guy out to eat a few times and fought aliens together. “Ukai made me, you know that Oba-chan.”

“The amount of times someone made you do what you didn’t already want to do exists on only one hand,” she replies without missing a beat, and daintily drinks her mulled wine with her free hand.

“Rude,” Tetsurou pouts.

Aunt Yui’s thumb strokes the skin of his knuckles comfortingly. “One of the traits you  _ definitely _ didn’t inherit from me,” she answers, and Tetsurou grins at her, this woman who was a once-feared commander and used to have him sitting on her lap as she assigned missions from behind her Director of SHIELD desk. She had wiped his tears away and taught him to pick locks at four, rescued him from a kidnapping when he was seven and gave him the saddest smile he’d ever seen when he eventually showed her the arc reactor in his chest.

“Try to sleep, Tetsu-chan,” she murmurs when she finally gets up to go to bed.

“Alright,” he says lightly, and doesn’t manage more than a restless nap before the sun comes up, and he grabs the crutch leaning against the couch, before making his way into the kitchen to get some coffee going.

Sawamura appears in the doorway just as Tetsurou’s draining his first cup, looking fresh and warm in a black sweater and jeans, hair still a little mussed from sleep.

“Morning, Kuroo-san,” he greets, and Tetsurou attempts to do the same, but only a murmured grunt escapes him.

“Excuse him, he’s pretty much non-verbal before his third cup,” Aunt Yui sighs as she slips into the kitchen from behind Sawamura. “Morning boys. Tetsu-chan, off the counter, please.”

He groans, remnants of non-sleep still clinging to his eyes, but dutifully jumps off the counter, landing on his good foot and going to fill his cup again.

“Lemme get that for you,” Sawamura offers, and Tetsurou wordlessly gives him the mug, watching blearily as the Captain pours the coffee, before handing the mug back to him.

For a moment, he experiences that same knee-jerk reaction to refuse it, an ingrained response to automatically reject things being handed to him because  _ they’re not safe, they’re dangerous, what if— _

But he’s in Aunt Yui’s home right now, and Sawamura wouldn’t hurt him. Right?

“Thanks,” he finally mumbles, taking the cup and gulping down the coffee.

Breakfast is simply eggs over rice, but Tetsurou can’t manage more than a few bites, stomach too queasy from the lack of sleep.

They get ready to leave a little after eight, because Tetsurou has a lunch meeting in Osaka, despite his best attempts to sneak his way out of it. He goes over to Haru napping on the window sill to pet her one last time, letting Sawamura bid his personal goodbyes to Aunt Yui first.

When it’s his turn, he walks towards the doorstep, where his godmother is waiting for him. As soon as he gets close enough, she reaches to wrap her arms around him, squeezing tight around his waist.

He can’t help shifting so that she doesn’t have to rest her head too closely against the arc reactor, and she goes along with it, tightening her hold for a long moment before leaning back to look up at him.

“Take care of yourself, Tetsu-chan,” she says with a smile, and Tetsurou misses her already.

“Where’s the fun in that?” he jokes, but quickly adds, “I’ll try. I just—I never knew how fragile we were, you know?”

Aunt Yui doesn’t say anything to that. Perhaps she’s always known it.

Instead, she cups his cheek, and Tetsurou lowers his head so she can ruffle his hair like she used to do when he barely went past her knees, a gesture that’s been continued in a decades-long ritual, almost older than Tetsurou can remember.

“I trust you’ll know what to do,” she says at last.

He doesn’t think so, but nods anyway. “We’ll head back, then. Can’t keep the other senior citizen waiting,” and his godmother laughs heartily, finally loosening her hold on him.

Sawamura must have heard him, despite the fact that he’s standing several feet away, because the Captain fixes him with an annoyed look, before glancing back at Aunt Yui. “Thanks again for having us, Michimiya,” he says, all polite and earnest.

Aunt Yui grins at both of them. “It was a pleasure. Come by and visit again soon, okay? Have a good trip, boys!”

Tetsurou and Sawamura bow their heads, and then they’re back on the road, JARVIS helpfully navigating them back to the airport, but something niggles at the back of Tetsurou’s mind when he takes a long look at the Captain.

“Were you close to my godmother?”

Sawamura shrugs, a half-smile on his face. It makes him look older than Tetsurou thinks he has any right to be. “She was sort of my CO at first, and I only got to work closer with her after the serum. Why?”

“Nah, just wondered,” Tetsurou answers. “I never knew she called you by your first name.”

“Oh.” The half-smile turns small and wistful, and there’s a faraway look in Sawamura’s eyes that Tetsurou’s beginning to recognise. “My—my best friend, Suga and I had similar-sounding last names. And we were pretty inseparable in the Karasu Commandos, so it was easier to just call me Daichi and Suga by his nickname.”

Sugawara ‘Suga’ Koushi, the only man to have given his life in service in the Karasu Commandos. Tetsurou remembers seeing him on the posters in his bedroom as a child.

He hums in acknowledgement, and then, before he could convince himself to not say anything, asks, “Do you want me to call you Daichi?”

It’s silent for maybe a couple of seconds, but Tetsurou counts the eternities that pass before the Captain finally replies, sounding a little choked, “Yeah. I… I’d like that, Kuroo-san.”

Tetsurou grins at him, the relief flooding his body enough to make him feel buoyant. “You know, if I’m going to be calling you Daichi, you should probably start calling me Tetsurou.”

Sa— _ Daichi _ lets out one of those deep belly laughs of his, the ones Tetsurou had only been privy to a couple of times, usually when those broad shoulders don’t seem to be completely carrying the burden of the world.

“Got it, Tetsurou.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was one of my absolute favourite chapters to write, ngl! a lot of michimiya's lines with daichi are almost directly lifted from peggy carter in ca:tws when cap meets her in that scene, just because I really, really loved that particular interaction of theirs.
> 
> the last chapter isn't really a chapter, but I'll be revealing the profiles I'd written up for kuroo and daichi in this verse and hopefully that clarifies any questions about their age, family, abilities, etc especially since I'd shifted the timeline around!
> 
> and I'll also be revealing a little bit of what I plan to write for the next installment in this series hehehe


	7. S.H.I.E.L.D. Official Files

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> S.H.I.E.L.D. Profiles on Captain and Iron Man.

**PROFILE #1**

**Name:** Kuroo Tetsurou

**DOB:** 17th November, 1982

**Status:** Alive

**Place of Birth:** Tokyo, Japan

**Race:** East Asian

**Gender:** Male

**Languages:**

_ Superior:- _ Japanese, English, Korean, Mandarin

_ Advanced:- _ Cantonese, French

_ Intermediate:- _ German, Russian, Urdu

**Title:** Consultant

**Height:** 188cm (6”2)

**Weight:** 75.3kg (166.0 lbs)

**Hair:** Black

**Eyes:** Hazel

**Identifiable Markings:** Scarring across the chest area due to miniaturized (RT) ARC reactor embedded into his chest cavity.

**Family:**

Kuroo Hirai, Father (DECEASED, 17th December, 1991)

Kuroo Mae, Mother (DECEASED, 17th December, 1991)

**Education:**

Tokyo Children’s Academy, Tokyo, Japan 

1986-1994

BSc. Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, USA

1995-1999

**Employment:**

CEO, Kuroo Industries (K.I.)

2000-2010

**Current Employment:**

Head of Research and Development, K.I.

2000-

S.H.I.E.L.D. Consultant

2010-

Avengers Initiative Member

2012-

**Abilities and Mission Strengths:**

Genius inventor, capable of conceiving and building technological advancements far beyond current existing technology. 

His Iron Man suit has an impenetrable armour protection, refined flight capacity and is equipped as well as powered by the most powerful and reliable arc reactor. The reactor powers both his pacemaker and the metal alloy suit.

* * *

**PROFILE #2**

**Name:** Sawamura Daichi

**DOB:** 31st December, 1947

**Status:** Alive

**Place of Birth:** Iwate Prefecture, Tohoku

**Race:** East Asian

**Gender:** Male

**Languages:**

_ Superior:- _ Japanese

_ Rudimentary:- _ English, French, Russian

**Title:** Adviser

**Height:** 176.7cm (5”9.6)

**Weight:** 85kg (187.3 lbs)

**Hair:** Black

**Eyes:** Dark brown

**Identifiable Markings:** None

**Family:**

Sawamura Haruto, Father (DECEASED, 4th July, 1950)

Sawamura Ena, Mother (DECEASED, 24th December, 1964)

**Education:**

Karumai Choritsu Elementary School 

1953-1958

Karumai Choritsu Junior High School

1958-1961

Karumai Kenritsu High School

1961-1965

**Employment:**

“Strategic Scientific Reserve” Member

1966

‘Karasu Commandos’ Captain

1967-1970

**Current Employment:**

Avengers Initiative Leader

2012-

**Abilities and Mission Strengths:**

The first enhanced human being in both body and mind. All physical attributes and cognitive abilities have been heightened to peak efficiency. Possesses superior strength, dexterity, healing factor.

Incredibly proficient in numerous martial arts, particularly judo and boxing. This, combined with the uniquely designed vibranium shield he carries as Captain makes him one of Earth’s finest human combatants.

* * *

  
  


**_Excerpt from the next installment:_ **

“Sir, may I remind you that you’ve been awake for 72 hours?”

Daichi fixes Tetsurou with a look that makes him squirm in a mix of embarrassment and indignation. God damn it, JARVIS. “Why the hell haven’t you gone to bed yet?”

“Because I—”

_ Because every time I close my eyes I see our imminent deaths and I see the absolute annihilation that is coming for Earth and I need to keep my people safe  _ **_I need to keep you safe_ ** _ and I can’t do that if I’m asleep trapped in my stupid fucking nightmares _

“—am so close to a breakthrough on that burnout-repulsor problem I had with the Mark IX _and_ Asahi’s pant-ripping issue so if you would just let me get back to one of my jobs, I would very much appreciate that, thank you very much.”

There’s a tick in Daichi’s jaw that Tetsurou has become more than familiar with in the past two months since the Avengers had moved into the tower, even with his increased back and forth between Tokyo and Osaka—and something in him can’t help but feel a little guilty about the fact that he was the one that had put that there, along with the increasing worry in the Captain’s dark eyes.

But he can’t stop now; the world needs its heroes, needs Daichi and the rest of them and even though Tetsurou is too broken now to even _think_ of being a part of the Avengers, at least he can still do this.

At least he can try his damndest best to keep them alive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> annnd that's the end! for everyone that's read, gave kudos and commented on this fic, thank you so so much! I hope you enjoyed this first part of my haikyuu x mcu universe, and I can't wait to get started on the next one, which will be heavily based on im3 (and possibly a little bit of ca:tws)!
> 
> I'm going to be taking a bit of break to write that installment, but again, thank you for showing this fic your love <3 <3 and I'll see you in the next part soon!

**Author's Note:**

> there are already a number of marked differences in this version of the avengers compared to the mcu, which will shape the rest of the following events
> 
> hope you enjoyed reading hehe lemme know if you like this one! <3


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